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WITCH HILL 



M U D G E 




"TT7E have examined, in preparing the material 
for this volume, "Woodward's Records of 
Salem Witchcraft, copied from the Original Docu- 
ments; 5 ' "Hutchinson's History of Massachu- 
setts ; " Cotton Mather's " Wonders of the Invisible 
World ; " Calef 's " More Wonders of the Invisible 
World ; " Mather's " Magnolia ; " " Salem Witch- 
craft," by the Hon. C. W. Upham ; The " Mather 
Papers ;" " Cotton Mather and Salem Witchcraft," 
in the "North American Review" for April, 1869; 
and " Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather," in 
the "Historical Magazine" for September and 
October, 1869. Some works less frequently used 
are referred to in the body of the volume. 

Our search into the original* sources, so far as 
they have been within our reach, has been chiefly 
valuable for the assurance that it has given us 
that there is very little indeed to reward such 
pains-taking not found in Mr. Upham's writings. 
His two volumes and his resume in the Historical 
Magazine make a thesaurus on the subject. 

Views from "Witch Hill" present some painful, 



6 PREFACE. 

and much somber scenery ; and if it had been our 
province to make rather than exhibit views, we 
should have endeavored to entertain the reader 
with pleasanter pictures. As it is, we think they 
will be found interesting, and know they will be 
profitable if read thoughtfully. The lesson they 
teach lies on the surface of the story, and is adapt- 
ed to the correction of dangerous current errors. 
Our prayer is that it may be owned of God to 
that end. 

The illustrations in this volume are taken from 
Upham's "Salem Witchcraft" by the kind permis- 
sion of the author. 





CHAPTER I. 

THE LOCALITY OF OUR STORY. 

Salem — Early Names of Danvers Center and Peabody — 
"Salem Village "—" The Middle Precinct ''—Salem in its First 
Years — Land Policy — Modes of Travel — " Canoe Day " — " Rais- 
ings : ' — "Huskings" — Winter Evenings — Police Regulations — 
Ship-building — The School-master — The Military Spirit — Re- 
ligious Convictions Page 15 

CHAPTER II. 

PORTRAITS OF NOTABLE PERSONS. 

The Marked Character of the Early Settlers — The Putnams — 
First of the Name — Three Brothers — Sergeant Thomas — Deacon 
Edward — Joseph — Landlord Nathaniel — Lieutenant John — 
Corporal Deacon Ingersoll — The Deacon's Inn — The Deacon's 
Character-4The Nurse Family — Giles Corey — Martha Corey — 
George Jacobs, Sen. — Bridget Bishop 26 

CHAPTER III. 

THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE. 

The Endicott Grant — The Townsend Bishop Lands — Provok- 
ing Loss by the Endicotts — Lawsuits — The Battle of the Wil- 
derness — Salem Village — A Border War 37 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FLOCK AND THE SHEPHERDS. 

Salem Village Parsonage — The Meeting-house — Rev. James 
Bagley — Parish Quarrels — the Pastor's Domestic Troubles — 



8 CONTENTS. 

Rev. George Burroughs — A Stormy Parish Meeting — Rec- 
ords — Rev. Deodat Lawson — Fresh Dissensions — Rev. Samuel 
Parras Page 45 

CHAPTER V. 

A SAD UNIVERSAL DELUSION. 

Witchcraft — Witch Covenant — Witch Power — Witch Knowl- 
edge — Witch Marks — '"Imps" — Patrons of Witchcraft — The 
Victims of Witchcraft—" The Witch-Finder General"— His 
Bloody Deeds — Tried by his own Test 55 

CHAPTER VI. 

STRANGE THINGS. 

William Perm and Witchcraft — Boston Cases — "The Pos- 
sessed" Girl and her Pastor — The Goodwin Children — Very 
Curious — Method of Treatment — Strange Things at Newbury — 
The Old Sailor — The Pranks of the Spirits — Arrests for Witch- 
craft , 65 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE CIRCLE. 

The People excited — Salem Villagers no Neutrals — The Cir- 
cle Girls — Ann Putnam — Mary Walcot — Mary Lewis — Eliza- 
beth Hubbard — Mary Warren — Sarah Churchill — Adult Volun- 
teers—The Girls begin to be " Afflicted "—The Doctor called— 
They grow worse and see sights — The Ministers called — An 
Honest Farmer's Remedy 73 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE FIRST VICTIMS. 

"The Afflicted"— The Accused indicted— The Court— Sarah 
Good's Examination — "Why do you hurt these Children?" — 
The Charge denied — Torments — Sarah Osburn's Examination — 
The Prisoner "never saw the Devil" — The Slave Tituba ex- 



CONTENTS. 9 

amined — The Slave is sold for her Jail Fees — Osburn dies in 
Jail — Sarah Good awaits her Fate Page 19 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE ACCUSERS STRIKE HIGHER. 

Martha Corey — Longfellow's Tragedy — Giles Corey — Martha 
is visited by the Brethren — Her Examination — Wishes to pray 
—The Girls see a Sight— They have Fits— " The Yellow Bird " 
— The Prisoner "acts Witchcraft" — Her heroic Bearing — Goes 
to Jail 91 

CHAPTER X. 

AN EXCELLENT MATRON. 

Rebecca. Nurse — Visited by Friends — Her Examination — 
The Girls are hurt — An "Amazed" Witness — Mrs. Ann Put- 
nam assails the Prisoner — The Judge insinuates — The Accused 
denies — The "Yellow Bird" and "Black Man" — Many and 
sore Fits — Nurse "acts Witchcraft" — Chains and Imprison- 
ment—A Witch Child 102 

CHAPTER XL 

THE VOICE OF THE WATCHMEN. 

Rev. Deodat Lawson — He hears Dismal Stories — The Girls 
in Church — Lawson sees an Awful Sight — Attends Nurse's 
Trial — His Rousing Blasts from the Pulpit — His Account of 
what he saw — Mr. Parris echoes the Alarm — The Witchcraft 
Fire is terrific x^j) 

CHAPTER XII. 

A CHANGE OF BASE. 

New Yictims selected — An August Council convenes at Sa- 
lem — The Lieutenant-Governor presides — John Indian takes 
the Stand— The Diabolical Sacraments— " The White Man"— 
Fainting and Confusion — John Indian does the Tumbling — The 
Specters take to the Beams — Dangerous Sympathy — A Shrewd 
Move 122 



10 . CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

MARKED CASES. 

Giles Corey again — He " acts Witchcraft " but "knows noth- 
ing of it" — Goes to Jail — Bridget Bishop — Her Specter's Skirt 
gets torn — The Court look into the Matter — Her Specter com- 
mits Murder and Bridget goes to Jail for it — The Hobbs Family 
— The Three Sisters — A Merchant Prince and Wife accused — 
An Original Character Page 133 

CHAPTER XIV. 

A REVEREND ELDER. 

A Clerical Tormentor — Ann Putnam preaches him a Sermon 
— The Specter gives his Name as George Burroughs — The 
Ghost gets roughly handled — A Knight of the Rapier — Specter 
Blood flows — Ann Putnam sees Terrific Sights — The Burroughs 
of Mesh and Blood is surprised by a Visit from an Officer — Is 
tried and sent to a Dungeon (JJ3 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE JACOBS FAMILY. 

George Jacobs, Sen., shows becoming Resentment — Accused 
by his Servant Girl — Pleads a Blameless Life — His Son George 
flees for his Life — The Son's Daughter Margaret turns Confessor 
and recants — The Son's Wife and the little Children — A Hard 
Case 159 

CHAPTER XVI. 

CURIOUS BUT SAD. 

Bray Wilkins — A Deputy Constable accused — Bray and his 
Wife go to Election — The Accused follows — Wilkins feels "an 
Evil Hand" — A Grandson is also "Bewitched" — The Circle 
Girls are called and see Visions — The Accused flees but 
escapes not 166 



/ 

V 



/ 

CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE CHRIST-LIKE SPIRIT. 

Elizabeth How— Bewitched Cattle— An " Afflicted " Horse— 
"An Evil Hand" on a Child— A Pastor's Testimony— Faithful 
Neighbors — Mrs. How's Looks and Touch are Awful! — Mrs. 
Mary Bradbury — Her Husband and Pastor declare her Life 
blameless — A Magistrate and Neighbors speak in her Behalf — 
" A Blue Boar" and Specters decide the Case Page 112 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

STATEMENTS OF PERSONAL SUFFERERS. 

Jonathan Cary and Wife — They hear a Rumor and go to 
Salem Village — Mr. Cary's Story — They fall into the Lion's 
Mouth — A Curious Sequel to the Cary Story — Captain John 
Alden — Entrapped by the Circle — Is committed and breaks 
Jail 182 

CHAPTER XIX. 

THE SPECIAL COURT. 

The Girls are invited to Andover — A Eire is kindled — A 
Magistrate pauses, is Accused and flies — The Great Number 
of the Accused and Accusers — The Special Court — Its Dignity 
— Its Illegal Character — Lost Records 192 



'Q* 



CHAPTER XX. 



Bridget Bishop again — Her present Appearance — Old Ac- 
cusations renewed — The Story of a Hatter — John Cook relates 
a remarkable Experience — An "Afflicted" Hog — One Stacey's 
most Miserable Luck — John Louder has an Amazing Time, and 
blames Mrs. Bishop for it — The Girls take the Stand — The new 
Judges hear, wonder, believe, and condemn — Mrs. Bishop is 
hanged — The Court adjourns — The Ministers advise 197 



12 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXL 

AN EXTORTED VERDICT. 

The Court re-assembles — Sarah Good — A Witness caught 
in a Lie — A Sharp "Reply to an insolent Declaration — Rebecca 
Nurse — Friendly Testimonies — Search for Witch Marks — Mrs. 
Ann Putnam's Vision — The Verdict, "Not Guilty" — A Furor 
— The Verdict reversed — A Reprieve — The Reprieve with- 
drawn — Mrs. Nurse is excommunicated — Hanged. . . Page 207 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE STORM RAGING. 

Wholesale Condemnations — George Burroughs — The Pris- 
oner confounded — The Judge sneers — The Prisoner's domestic 
Affairs — His great Strength — His Explanation — He dies on 
Witch Hill — John Proctor — Friends in Need — The Witnesses 
" must have some Sport " — Proctor's Letter to the Ministers — 
He dies — An Angel Little One — George Jacobs, Sen. — His 
Composure — John Willard — A ghastly Procession — "A Shining 
One" — More Condemnations — Martha Corey — Excommunicat- 
ed — Makes an "Eminent Prayer on the Ladder" — Mary Easty 
— Writes a Letter in Prison 219 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

TERRIBLE PERSISTENCY. 

Giles Corey — He Settles his Worldly Affairs — His Resolu- 
tion — Longfellow's Description of his Last Hours — Tradition 
concerning the Place of his P^xecution — A Charitable Prophecy 
—The Last Spectral Vision 236 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE CONFESSIONS OF THE ACCUSED. 

The Special Court stamped out — The Recantation of the An- 
dover Confessors — President Mather and the Confessors — Mar- 
garet Jacob's Confession — Confession by an Accuser — Martha 



CONTENTS. 13 

Carrier's Confession — The Negro Candy — Torture used to ex- 
tort Confession — Brattle on the Confessors Page 236 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THE COLLAPSE. 

Governor Phipps — The Legislature — Dissatisfaction — The Au- 
dacity of the Girls — Andover People are Plucky — Bently on 
the Desolation — The Number Wounded or Slain — Domestic 
Sufferings — Business Stagnation — Legal Spoliation — Fees ex- 
acted — Renewed Attempts of the Court — Failure. 249 

CHAPTER XXYI. 

INCIDENTS OF THE TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS. 

William Hobbs saved by Friends — John Alden "flying from 
the Devil" — A Touching Scene in the How Family — A Son's 
Heroism in Behalf of his Mother — The Imprisoned Victims — A 
Sore Perplexity — The Last Moments of some of the Executed— 
The Bodies of those Hanged 258 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

AN IMPORTANT INQUIRY. 

Who were Responsible ?-^The Record of the Ministers^— Dr. 
Increase Mather's Declarations — Rev. Mr. Willard and the be- 
witched Girl — His "Miscellany Observations" — Fasting and 
Prayer — Important Qualifications — Cotton Mather on "the 
Water Ordeal" and "Specter Wounds" — The Ministers in 
Council — Their Decision j>67^ 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

COURT SCENES AND THE JUDGES. 

The Harsh Spirit of the Judges — The Listening Crowd — The 
Trembling Prisoner— " The Afflicted"— " Who hurts these?" 
— Replies— Startling Sights— The Ludicrous— The Record of the 
Judges— Testimony of Friends— They Speak for Themselves— 
An Important Point stated — Diversity of Opinion 277 



14: CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE POOR AFFLICTED." 



The Question concerning them — Clerical Opinions — Willard's 
Statement — Brattle's Opinion — Their Good Health — A Queer 
Legal Construction — A proposed Method of curing them — 
Joseph Putnam defies them — "Possessed Persons" — The 



CHAPTER XXX. 

PENITENTIAL TEARS. 

Mr. Hale's Penitent Words — Cotton Mather quotes them — 
Rev. John Higginson on Public Humiliation — Mr. Parris thinks 
God has been "Spitting in his Face" — What Mr. Noyes did — 
The Jurors at the Confessional — The General Court — Records 
of Excommunications " Erased and Blotted Out" — Judge Sew- 
all's Sorrow — Ann Putnam's Tears j9ii 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

A VISIT TO THE HISTORIC LOCALITIES. 

The Site of the JTrsyakucch— Bridget Bishop's Estate— Old 
Court-House— Old Jail — Place of Giles Corey's Execution — 
Beadle Inn — Giles Corey's Farm — George Jacobs' House — 
Townsend Bishop Nurse House— Salem Village — Old Parson- 
age — Old Meeting House — Deacon I nger soil's Place — Old Rec- 
ords—Witch Hill— Adieu. 3^1$ 



miln&ixKiittxiB. 



Chaptkr 

Witch Hill 2 

The Jacobs' House 158 

The Townsend Bishop House 313 



WITCH HILL. 



-♦•♦- 



CHAPTER I. 

A PLEASANT ride on the Eastern Railroad foi 
about three fourths of an hour will bring us from 
Boston to the city of Salem. In the witchcraft 
period this place included what is now the town 
of Peabody, lying on its northern boundary, called 
then the "Middle Precinct," and Danvers, known 
as Salem Village, situated still further north. 

Every well-informed grammar school boy of our 
country knows Salem as one of the prominent 
cities of New England. If a visit were made to it, 
and to the towns once included within its territory, 
there would be seen all the peculiarities of New 
England scenery, and of a first-class New England 
community. Here are churches, common schools, 
literary institutions, commerce and manufactories, 
all in intense activity. Let us take our stand on 
one of the many rocky eminences which command 
a view of a large portion of this region — on Witch 
Hill itself.* Let us remove the railroads, stop the 

* See Frontispiece. 



16 WITCH HILL. 

clatter of steam factories, change all the vessels 
whose sails whiten the extended line of sea into 
canoes, a few ships, and smaller craft of a queer 
construction. Let us take away the great mass 
of the dwellings and their population, leaving 
a scattered settlement in houses usually humble. 
Let us fill most of the land with craggy rocks, and 
forests through which a few rough roads have been 
cut, and, in vision, put Puritans of the original 
type in the place of the present Yankee inhabit- 
ants. Then we shall see things in a measure as 
they were nearly two hundred years ago. Into 
the midst of such scenes, and to such a people, we 
shall endeavor to introduce our readers. To feel 
justly the effect of the stirring incidents with which 
they are to be made acquainted, they will need 
to know something of the locality ; to understand 
the strange conduct of the prominent actors in 
our tragedy, it will be necessary to know the com- 
munity of which they made a part, and the times 
in which they lived. 

The witchcraft delusion of Salem occurred in 
1692. The first permanent settlement of the place 
was made in 1628. John Endicott. who came 
with the first immigrants, and was the first Gov- 
ernor of the colony, was a man of great business 
abilities, and, though not free from evident infirm- 
ities, possessed a genuine Christian heart. He 
planned and executed liberal things for his own 
and future generations. Under his management, 
and that of the governors who immediately fol- 
lowed him, a very wise policy was adopted to 



WITCH HILL. 17 

induce settlers in the New World to select this 
locality, and to secure an intelligent, moral, and 
thrifty community. / 

Their land policy was admirable. They gave 
extensive tracts of country to rich men of known 
enterprise and excellence of character, who ex- 
pended large sums in opening roads, clearing farms, 
erecting the necessary buildings, introducing do- 
mestic animals, implements of agriculture, and the 
best varieties of fruits and vegetables; in doing 
this they necessarily opened the way for and en- 
couraged all the mechanic arts. Grants were 
made on condition that special enterprises should 
be carried on. One man received lands for " set- 
ting up plowing," and so the first plows were in- 
troduced. Another started "salt-works" through 
the same kind of encouragement. We shall become 
acquainted in the course of our history with some 
of these large, wealthy land-holders. 

But if the land grants had been confined to 
these rich men, notwithstanding they were usually 
men of a generous policy toward their laborers, 
the final results would have been bad. Labor and 
thrift were wisely considered the best of wealth. 
Men who were penniless on the other side of the 
Atlantic came over, and, first working out the 
price of their passage on lands given or leased at 
a low rent, then working out from the forest farms 
and homes of their own, they became prominent 
actors in both State and Church. With these 
yeomen we shall become quite intimate. Of course 
the work to be done, the sacrifices to be made, and 



18 WITCH HILL. 

the energy to be put forth by all classes, was im- 
mense. The forests were to be cleared, roads to 
be opened, the wild beasts of the forest to be con- 
quered, and the Indians to be watched, fought, 
and governed. Then their own government need- 
ed to be conformed to the peculiar necessities of a 
growing country, for which no old model would 
answer. Lastly, not last, but foremost in their 
thoughts and hearts, religion and education were 
to be established together and every-where exalted. 

The farmers at first opened roads to their own 
lands — rocky and "stumpy" no doubt, for many 
years. The first road made by the common labor 
was that to the meeting-house. 

The mode of travel was for a long time, if by 
land, on horseback. It would be curious now to 
see the men, women, and children, often two or 
three persons on one animal, thus picking their 
way to town or to church. 

But much of the travel and transportation of 
goods was by canoes. These were of two kinds : 
those made of white pine logs, scooped out and 
shaped for the purpose, and those made of bark in 
the Indian manner. These last were best for most 
purposes, if managed with an Indian's skill. They 
skimmed along the shore with ease, slipping up 
the shallowest water of the beaches and creeks, 
and even ventured into the rough seas round the 
headlands; then, furthermore, they were easily 
borne on a man's head across necks of land to be 
launched on the other side. 

So important to the welfare of the whole people 



WITCH HILL. 19 

did the Salem fathers deem the canoe fleet, that 
they appointed a board of their best men as canoe 
inspectors. The fourth day of May was canoe 
day. By nine o'clock in the morning, at specified 
points on the North and South rivers — arms of the 
sea north and south of the strip of land on which 
their town was situated — all the canoes of the 
settlement were to appear. After serious and 
faithful inspection, they received, if judged worthy, 
the official seal, without which any canoe was 
liable to a fine of ten shillings. Mr. Upham sug- 
gests that this occasion was the first Fourth of 
July ever celebrated in America. We have no 
doubt that if Young America was then in the 
country (and we shall have occasion to show that 
he came over very early) there was severe testing 
of the relative fleetness of canoes, and skill and 
strength of arms in propelling them, as well as 
courage in urging them over the surging seas. 
There were no fire-crackers, and powder was too 
valuable to be burned for the sake of its noisy ex- 
plosion ; but the young people, then as now, had 
lusty voices, and knew how to make them ring 
along the echoing shores in loud shouts and merry 
laughter. 

Canoe Day was not the only occasion on which 
the fathers of the locality and their families en- 
joyed hearty, innocent recreation. When a neigh- 
bor had cut his timber and hewed it into a frame 
for a house, brought all his materials to the spot 
and put them in readiness, then the country was 
astir for "a raising." It was a "good turn" ren- 



20 WITCH HILL. 

dered freely in expectation that under the same 
circumstances it would be reciprocated. What 
lifting, and shouting, and general confusion there 
was to get the frame of a small house into place ! 
while now a first-class church is erected without 
disturbing the sick across the street, and without 
the labor of any except a few mechanics and their 
powerful machinery. 

The huskings were, however, much greater, be- 
cause more general and regularly occurring occa- 
sions for merriment. The huge piles of golden 
grain, the result of a summer's toil ; the men and 
women gathering about it in their "homespun" 
clothes — the old folks with relaxed gravity and 
the young folks sparkling with wit and overflowing 
with gladness; and the "farmer's supper" in the 
great kitchen which followed, made an occasion 
remembered with pleasure by all. 

Then there were the winter evenings, long and 
quiet, (not as now, short and bustling,) when the 
snow-storms of New England were not, as in these 
degenerate days, windy pretensions, whose snow 
a few steam-plows put into inglorious heaps by the 
wayside, or a day's sun melts; but furious tem- 
pests, and earnest blockades of men and animals 
for weeks. It was then that the fire blazed cheer- 
fully in the ample fire-place. The huge logs gave 
assurance that winter might knock with his iciest 
fingers, and yet not be admitted. The children 
and domestics in their seats against the jambs, and 
the older people on the settees before the fire, told 
their stories, read over and over their few books, 



WITCH HILL. 21 

sang their evening songs, offered their evening 
prayers, and were early in beds where sleep was 
too sound and refreshing for dreams. 

The first settlers of Salem found no Indians liv- 
ing in their immediate vicinity, though savage 
assaults upon the white people sometimes occurred 
not far from them. Having, therefore, no Indian 
drones in their midst, they determined to have no 
white ones. They allowed no strangers to remain 
among them without "a license," and stringent 
laws were made against Sabbath-breaking, drunk- 
enness, swearing, and such wicked practices. Two 
boys among some new comers behaved badly, and 
were sent back to England ! We fear it would 
make a scattering now in most of the villages of 
the country if all the bad boys were ordered across 
the sea ! 

Though the fathers in this vicinity were thus 
jealous of the good morals of their colony they 
unwisely introduced alcohol, the worst enemy of 
morality. Governor Winthrop, writing to his son 
in 1648, says: "They are all well in Salem, and 
your uncle is now beginning to distill." Beyond 
a doubt many were ill, and grew rapidly worse 
from that moment. 

A better business than distilling was early com- 
menced. Bentley, a Salem historian, says : " In 
1636 they built at Marble Harbor, then Salem, a 
vessel of 120 tons. This ship, called the Desire, 
was commanded by Captain Peirce, who made the 
first almanac ever published in America. This he 
was induced to prepare after the arrival of Glover's 



22 WITCH HILL. 

printing-press, which was afterward established at 
Cambridge. In Salem, 1640, they built a ship of 
300 tons, and in 1641 she was launched." 

Ship owning at once became profitable, for he 
adds concerning the next ship which was built, 
" she made eighty per cent, profit the same year." 

The school-master was soon abroad in Salem, 
notwithstanding the common idea of the ignorance 
of its people in the witchcraft matter. There was a 
grammar school teacher in Salem in 1637, a grad- 
uate of Cambridge University in England, who 
prepared for admission a part of the first class of 
Harvard College. He was immediately succeeded 
by equally competent teachers, so that the town 
from the first afforded the means of a preparatory 
classical training to its sons. This was occasioned 
in part, no doubt, from a fact which the reader will 
need to remember, namely, that most of the con- 
siderable land-holders around Salem owned "town 
lots" and had residences in town. This was favor- 
able, of course, to their social, educational, and re- 
ligious development. "The farmers" in and about 
Salem Village did not see the school-master so 
early nor so frequently, but they sought, as far as 
their circumstances allowed, his important services. 
One of their number, who had more than the 
average knowledge of "writing, ciphering, and 
spelling," was employed to receive his neighbors' 
children at stated times at his own house for in- 
struction in these branches. An itinerating school 
and school-master were sustained at one time. 
Thus was cradled in Salem Village and its kin- 



WITCH HILL. 23 

dred settlements the New England common school 
system. 

The fathers of Salem devised liberal things in all 
great enterprises. A favorite object with them 
nntil 1642 was to make their town the capital of 
New England. They schemed to locate the pro- 
posed college in their vicinity, and made a reserve 
of lands on the Marblehead farms for this purpose. 
But the college went to Cambridge, and Boston 
became the commercial center. It may sound 
strangely now to name the Marblehead farms in 
connection with the oldest of the eminent seats of 
learning in America ; but the bracing air and the 
grand views connected with that locality make it, 
in point of scenery and health, far superior to the 
one chosen. 

The military spirit of Salem, but more especially 
of Salem Village, was one of its most prominent 
peculiarities. Fear of the Indians had been its 
occasion and inspiration. A company was early 
formed in the Village, and the adults who were 
able to bear arms, whether rich or poor, old or 
young, joined it. "We shall meet in the witchcraft 
proceedings men who belonged to it, and had seen 
service in the fiercest fights of the famous Narra- 
gansett War. In fact, Salem has been, from its 
first settlement, eminently military. It has given 
men of distinction to every war of the country, 
not excepting that of the Great Rebellion. The 
best known of these heroes, though perhaps not 
the greatest, was General Israel Putnam, whose 
wolf exploit in Connecticut and cool daring on 



2i WITCH HILL. 

Bunker Hill are among the facts of history first 
learned by American school-children. 

The village company was officered by its most 
prominent men, and there were no honors more 
highly prized than those it conferred. To be even 
a corporal in it was to be known as "Corporal" 
the rest of one's life. Grave deacons, dignified 
justices, and the aristocratic land-holder, did not 
feel degraded to train in its ranks, and were proud 
of its commissions. It met for drill on the grounds 
made sacred by the Sabbath gatherings for wor- 
ship, and was composed of the same men who 
constituted the Church and sustained its interest. 
One of the practices, if not one of the duties, of 
the captain was, before dismissing his company, to 
give notice of Church or parish meetings, and, no 
doubt, the drill was often immediately followed by 
the spiritual exercises of God's house. 

A horse company was also made up in part 
from the village. 

In religion the Salem people were of the "strait- 
est sect" of our Puritan fathers. Their convictions 
on this subject were very deep, and held with 
greater tenacity than life. Nor do we find them 
mere bigots. Their perception of the essential re- 
quirements for salvation were clearly scriptural, 
and their experience of the power of Gospel truth 
was generally a fact of their daily lives. Greatly 
mistaken in some grave matters they certainly 
were. They had sought out this " corner of the 
earth," at great peril and sacrifice, to build up 
political and religious freedom for themselves. 



WITCH HILL. 25 

They desired those who differed from them to seek 
some other corner. How many corners God would 
have to provide on this earth if every party in 
politics and every sect in religion should seek one 
for itself, and what " border wars" there would be ! 
With a portion of this people, whose history 
and training we have thus briefly sketched, we are 
to become acquainted at a period when the ele- 
ments of their character were so intensely fired 
that they shook their social fabric, as the volcano 
shakes the mount from which it issues. 








. CHAPTER II. 

THE time intervening between the landing of 
the first settlers in Salem, in 1628, and the 
witchcraft tragedy, was only about sixty-four years. 
Some of the earliest notable men had not been gone 
many years from the active scenes of the settle- 
ment, and a few of the fathers of the second gen- 
eration who had received the immediate mantle 
of the first were still alive. Thus the facts which 
we have narrated had an immediate bearing upon 
the transactions of our story. 

Many eminent men and characters of rare origi- 
nality were produced in this vicinity during these 
two generations. Indeed, no section of the country, 
it may be safely affirmed, has produced more men 
whose names have become national than that in- 
cluded within the limits of our history. But we 
purpose to present to the reader the portraits of 
those faces only which will appear with more or 
less prominence in subsequent scenes. To appre- 
ciate their part on the stage we shall need to 
know them behind the curtain. 

Whatever turn our story takes, the Putnam s 
generally appear in some relation to it. There 



WITCH HILL. 27 

were three brothers, Thomas, Nathaniel, and 
John, sons of the first immigrant of the name. 
Their father owned large tracts of forest to the 
north of the village, and was a man of energy 
and thrift. He left to his eldest son, Thomas, 
after the English custom, the largest portion of 
his substance, but gave to all valuable property. 
They were men, as we shall see, distinguished by 
sharp lines of character, great capacity for busi- 
ness, and marked executive power. As Thomas 
died before 1692, we shall know him only in his 
sons, Thomas, Edward, and Joseph. The first will 
be spoken of as Sergeant Thomas, clerk of the 
parish, and will be constantly upon or flitting 
across the stage ; his wife Ann and daughter Ann, 
their wild, expressive countenances looking as if 
they saw John's vision of Michael and his angels, 
fighting with the Great Red Dragon and his 
angels, can never be forgotten when once seen. 
Edward became Deacon Edward, whose genuine 
piety and generally sound judgment were over- 
borne by the frenzied excitement of the delusion, 
but who lived to see his fellows, not as trees nor as 
" specters," but as men walking. Joseph was the 
son of his father's second wife, who was living as 
a widow on the homestead in 1692, a mile and a 
quarter north-west of the village. Joseph was just 
married then, and a young man. He will not 
come upon the stage often during the acting of our 
tragi-comedy, but when he does it will be with a 
flashing eye, and an outstretched, defiant right 
arm. We shall always be glad to see him. He 



28 WITCH HILL. 

was the father of "Old Put" of the Revolution, 
who inherited his towering bravery. 

Nathaniel Putnam was a man of wealth, ob- 
tained by his wife, as well as by inheritance and 
thrift; he was known as landlord Putnam. He 
was prominent in all political and Church matters, 
of great energy and influence. He will appear 
early in the witchcraft scenes, but seems to have 
had prudence as well as force, and so was not so 
painfully connected with them as some others. He 
lived, where his descendants have lived to this 
day, about a mile south-east of the old church of 
the Village. 

John Putnam, known as " Lieutenant," and later 
as " Captain," was neither less energetic nor promi- 
nent than his older brothers, Thomas and Nathaniel, 
though somewhat less discreet. There is some- 
thing honest and straightforward expressed in his 
open countenance and military air. He has fought 
the Pequod Indians, and you cannot help feeling 
assured that fighting for what he feels to be the 
right is not difficult for him. You would not sus- 
pect him of a mean transaction, though we may 
have to prove one such against him. At any rate 
trickery and concealment are no parts of his char- 
acter. His face will become perfectly familiar. 

These three Putnam brothers had large families, 
high position, and great influence. If they had been 
clannish they might well-nigh have ruled Salem 
Village. But they were remarkable for their indi- 
viduality, often acting independent of and even in 
opposition to each other. They all had town resi- 



WITCH HILL. 29 

dences besides rural homes, and so were brought 
in contact with kindred leading minds. So. too, 
they all followed the practice of other land-holders, 
and gave to their sons, as they became heads of 
families, farms out of their own estates, thus devel- 
oping their land and strengthening the family 
influence. Another practice should be remem- 
bered : each son learned some useful trade, so 
that the farmers were carpenters, masons, black- 
smiths, etc. 

Here is the portrait of one whom we shall love 
to see often: he is Corporal Ingersall ; for, hav- 
ing risen to that rank in the Village company, 
the honor clung to him for life. Even the title 
" Deacon," which he bore about fifty years, could 
not overshadow it. He settled in early manhood 
in the Village near where the first meeting-house 
was built. His house was a large one for the times, 
one room especially so. This room seems to have 
been devised, out of the largeness of his heart, for 
the benefit of the public, and particularly for the 
parish and Church. At any rate it was subse- 
quently turned to that account. The religious 
pioneers of this Continent have every- where, and 
in every generation, found the ample kitchen of a 
whole-hearted brother a most convenient place. 
It was so with Salem Village parish and Church. 
When a wintry Sabbath proved unusually severe, 
and but few assembled in the un warmed meeting- 
house, an adjournment to Deacon Ingersall's warm 
w great room " was a common expedient. There were 
no "lecture rooms," "vestries," nor "chapels" of 



30 WITCH HILL. 

course, and the " parish committee " met at the 
Deacon's ; the " weekly lecture " was often given 
there ; and for " the Church meeting " it was found 
a more comfortable place than the cold meeting- 
house. In fact, the " great room " was a very great 
convenience, and the Deacon's face was never 
turned coldly to his brethren however often or in 
whatever numbers they came. 

Deacon Ingersall was one of those interesting 
characters, found among most of the new settle- 
ments of our country, for whom the lawyer has 
been unhappily substituted. He was the " referee " 
in the settlement of perplexing business matters, 
the umpire in differences, the "go-between" in his 
neighbors' quarrels ; and all bowed to the majesty 
of his good sense, clear judgment, and fearless in- 
tegrity. He owned seventy-five acres in the center 
of the Village, and was never wealthy in compari- 
son with the most of his associates ; but what he 
lacked in estate he made up in wealth of charac- 
ter. He married a Lynn woman of like spirit, and, 
though they had no children who lived, all the 
children of the parish lived in their hearts. His 
house had become by his generous spirit so com- 
mon to all, and being on the traveled road to the 
farms north and west, he was licensed to keep " an 
ordinary," that is, a place of entertainment. We 
shall become more familiar with him and his larcre 
room. 

The next person to whom we would introduce 
our readers is Francis Nurse, He was a man less 
John-like in his disposition than Deacon Ingersall, 



WITCH HILL. 31 

and of humbler social rank and influence, as he 
seems never to have been even " corporal " in mili- 
tary life, nor an office-bearer in the Church ; yet he 
possessed a well-earned " good name," which " is 
better than great riches." He too was " umpire," 
" referee," an arbiter of conflicting claims, and an 
adjuster of disputed boundary lines among his 
neighbors. He lived for forty years, before becom- 
ing of historic note, in Salem town, just out of the 
settlement, on the North River, toward Beverly 
Ferry. He was during this period a " tray-maker." 
His wife (we greet her now with cheerfulness and 
respect, but shall part with her in pity, love, and 
tears ) belonged to an excellent family by the 
name of Town, other members of which we shall 
meet. Francis Nurse and Rebecca, his wife, had 
four sons, Samuel, John, Francis, and Benjamin ; 
and four daughters : Rebecca, who became the 
wife of Thomas Preston; Mary, wife of John 
Tarbell ; Elizabeth, wife of William Russell ; 
and Sarah, unmarried during the period of our 
history. 

Nurse was fifty-eight years of age, and his wife 
fifty-seven, when they entered upon an enterprise 
requiring the energy and faith of youth, and the 
wisdom and prudence of age. He purchased of 
the Rev. James Allen, one of the ministers of the 
First Church, in Boston, a three-hundred-acre 
tract of land, with its mansion, out-buildings, and 
partial cultivation, known as "The Townsend 
Bishop Farm." The price agreed upon was four 
hundred pounds sterling, not less certainly than 



32 WITCH HILL. 

twenty-five hundred dollars of the present cur- 
rency — a great sum, u a fortune " in fact, for 
those days. But he did not pay one penny down, 
and seems to have had but little with which to 
pay. The terms were peculiar, shrewd, and, what 
is perhaps the most remarkable feature of them, 
very favorable for both parties. Twenty years 
were given him in which to pay it. But Nurse, 
his sons, sons-in-law, and their wives — for credit 
seems justly due to every one of them — were 
equal to the daring enterprise. Year by year the 
forest yielded to their sturdy blow T s. Each au- 
tumn new lands were laden with the harvest fruit. 
Orchards were planted, roads opened, new homes 
created. Before the expiration of the twenty 
years Nurse had conveyed to his children, their 
farms lying in every direction about him within 
the estate, a value having been made more than 
equal to the sum due to Allen. The homestead, 
with its immediate improvements, was retained by 
the patriarchal couple. Nurse's bond, which he had 
at the beginning given for a full deed, was can- 
celed, and all was secured within his family. 
They had dared great things and succeeded. We 
shall meet them all in other and sadder relations. 

Giles Corey was unlike any of the preceding 
characters. He was a man of much force, of great 
eccentricity, and of a peculiar tact in making ene- 
mies without really wronging any man. He was 
a man of sufficient wealth, though lacking all other 
qualifications, to occupy a first-class social posi- 
tion, to which, however, he seemed not to aspire. 



WITCH HILL. 33 

He had lived for many years in the town of Salem, 
but for the last thirty years of his life had a home- 
stead and farm in the "Middle Precinct," about 
two miles south-west of the village. 

Corey's rough, heedless way of living made him 
the pack-horse for the sins committed in his neigh- 
borhood. At one time he whipped a man employed 
on his farm. The man was soon after carried by 
Corey's wife home to his friends sick, where sub- 
sequently he was, for some misconduct, whipped 
again. He soon after died. Much gossip grew 
out of this, and Corey was accused of killing the 
man. The complaint was not that he had whipped 
the man, for whipping by parents, guardians, and 
employers was " an institution" of those clays, but 
that he had whipped him unmercifully. But noth- 
ing serious was proved against Corey, though the 
accusation was remembered. 

At another time Corey's hired man, Gloyd, sued 
him for wages. The case, by mutual agreement, 
was left to impartial men. The decision was rather 
against Corey, but the referees say : " Giles Corey 
did manifest as much satisfaction, and gave as 
many thanks to every one of us as ever we heard." 
John Proctor, a neighbor, and the arbiter chosen 
by Gloyd, received, they add, "as many thanks 
from Corey as any one of those deciding the case." 
Proctor was a man of whom we shall know 
more — a blunt, sharp- cornered man, with some of 
Corey's roughness, but none of his doubtful moral- 
ity. The two were enough alike to have passages 
at arms together in which the game was generally 



34 WITCH HILL. 

" a drawn " one. Soon after these kind words from 
Corey, Proctor's house caught fire. As there was 
seldom an evil abroad and Corey not thought to 
be the doer of it, the fire was attributed to him, 
Proctor joining in the accusation. Corey was 
brought to trial, and having proved that he w r as at 
home in bed when the fire was set, he was fully 
acquitted in law and in the judgment of all the can- 
did. The accusations had been heaped upon him 
too heavily and too often, and the old man's spirit 
was up. He sued Proctor and others for defama- 
tion, and recovered damages against them all. 
But the law does not give character, and the ac- 
cusations went on against Corey to the bitter end, 
though, at eighty years of age, he professed re- 
ligion and was received into the First Church in 
Salem. Even the act of reception into the Church 
was most unjustly, and distastefully, as it seems to 
us, made the occasion for dishonoring his name. 
The Church Records read, to this day, against the 
entry of his name as a member, " a man eighty 
years old and of a scandalous life" God " blots 
out" our forgiven sins. Nothing more serious 
than an aptitude for making enemies seems to 
have been proved against this most notable man 
of the witchcraft history. 

Giles Corey's wife, Martha, fills a noticeable 
place in the tragic scenes of our narrative. She 
was a member of the village Church, a praying, 
intelligent, clear-headed, resolute woman, worthy 
of a prominent place among the honored Puritan 
mothers of "the olden time." Her words and 



WITCH HILL. 35 

deeds and sufferings will become familiar to the 
reader. 

George Jacobs, Sen., is presented to us as "an 
old man with two crutches." He had lived on his 
farm, about a mile and three fourths from the vil- 
lage and the same distance from the town, for fifty 
years, was of general good repute, and an honest 
tiller of the ground. His son, George Jacobs, Jun., 
a worthy son, will be remembered in connection 
with his own daughter Margaret, as well as with 
his venerable parent — a notable family. 

The next portrait is a subject for study. It is 
that of a woman, but not that of a Puritan matron 
of the period of the witchcraft proceedings, though 
one of its prominent figures. She wears " a black 
cap and black hat, and a red paragon bodice, bor- 
dered and looped with different colors." Her con- 
duct is as much out of the Puritanic order as her 
dress. Keeping a house for the entertainment of 
travelers, she keeps a u shovel-board " for their 
entertainment. The moral character of the play 
at shovel-board seems to have been much the same 
as that of our modern ten-pins or billiards. Her 
name is Bridget Bishop. She was the Widow 
Oliver before she was married to Bishop. Her 
husband is known as "The Sawyer," to distinguish 
him from several others of the same name. His 
business as a "sawyer" was not that of sawing 
wood for the fire, but that of saw T ing logs with the 
"pitsaw" into planks, joists, and framing lumber, 
for mechanical purposes. 

Bridget was gifted in the same direction of Giles 

8 



36 WITCH HILL. 

Corey — she was wonderfully apt in making matter 
for gossip and in giving offense. She was brought 
to trial, under the accusation of witchcraft, twelve 
years before the great outbreak on that subject in 
Salem Village, and acquitted. It was a premature 
experiment upon the credulity of court and jury 
in Essex County. She, after this, defied public 
opinion, by her dress and conduct, more freely than 
ever. Slander was flippant at a distance, but found 
it not always safe to play its part in Bridget's 
presence, for she had a strong arm and resolute 
spirit. A man once boasted in the family of one 
of her neighbors that he would visit Bridget and 
"bring her out" as the bewitcher of their child. 
Accompanied by a boy, he tried the experiment. 
The offended woman penetrated his design, seized 
a spade, and, with lusty blows, drove both, bruised 
and crest-fallen, from her premises. Such conduct 
was not likely to advance Bridget's reputation for 
piety, she being a member of the Church in Bev- 
erly. Yet an investigation of the facts in her case, 
by her pastor, five years before the great witch- 
craft storm, resulted in showing that she was quite 
as much sinned against as sinning, and not, when 
treated fairly, otherwise than odd and imprudent. 

Such are the portraits of some of those who will 
appear amid the scenes to be exhibited. 



CHAPTER III. 

¥E have glanced at the locality in which the 
scenes of our narrative are laid. We have 
briefly introduced the representative persons, notic- 
ing most fully those who are to become actors in 
the tragedies of our story or victims of its bloody 
progress. There were contentions between certain 
parties spread over the few years immediately pre- 
ceding the trials and executions, some of which 
were intensely bitter, protracted, and ultimately, 
wide-spread. These are believed, by many care- 
ful students of the witchcraft history, to have been 
the occasion of some of its worst features, and to 
account largely for its very existence. 

As is generally the case, this story of strife is a 
long one; but what might and has, no doubt, 
occupied a whole winter of evening fireside talk 
we must narrate in a short chapter. 

The General Court had, in 1632, granted Gov- 
ernor Endicott three hundred acres of land. The 
grant was located in the north-east corner of Salem 
town, not far from the Beverly line. It was 
described in the records as being " bounded on the 
south side with a river commonly called the Cow 



38 WITCH HILL. 

House River ; on the north side with a river com- 
monly called the Duck River ; on the east with a 
river, leading up to the two former rivers, known 
by the name of Wooleston River ; and on the west 
with the main-land." 

This made, throwing out, as was usual, the un- 
available swamps, the required three hundred acres. 
In 1638 the town, which now disposed of its lands, 
gave Townsend Bishop a grant on the west of 
Endicott's of three hundred acres. It was loosely 
described in the conveyance, fixing the number 
of rods in each direction, but not determining with 
exactness where they should begin and end. 

At a later period Endicott bought the Town- 
send Bishop land. When his oldest son, John 
Endicott, Jr., was married, the Governor gave him 
the Townsend Bishop Farm. The papers which 
were intended to make this legal were, unfortu- 
nately, not such as to leave no room for an honest 
difference of opinion concerning their meaning. 
The father died in 1665. After a protracted law- 
suit between John and his brother Zerubbabel, the 
Court, which had vacillated in the course of the 
trials, established John in possession of the Bishop 
estate. John died in February, 1668, without 
children, and left his whole property to his wife, 
who, six months after, married Rev. James Allen, 
one of the ministers of the First Church in Boston, 
whose former wife had left him a large property. 
His Endicott wife died in April, 1673, leaving him 
all her property, and in September of the same 
year he married again. The surviving members 



WITCH HILL. 39 

of the Endicott family thus saw in a few years a 
fair portion of the paternal estate swept into the 
hands of strangers in the most distasteful and pro- 
voking manner. But this was but the beginning 
of their trouble. 

In April, 1678, Allen sold the Bishop estate to 
Francis Nurse. We have sketched the history of 
Nurse, the terms on which he bought the farm, 
the skillful and energetic way in which he, his sons, 
and sons-in-law wrought out those terms, planting, 
as their families increased, new farms on their 
ample acres, heroically penetrating the wooded 
depths with cultivated fields, thus holding in fruit- 
ful cultivation every foot which they conquered 
from the wilderness. Through many of the years 
in which the Nurses were thus toiling a most pain- 
ful lawsuit was going on in the courts, involving 
the money, mind, and heart of distinguished par- 
ties concerning these very acres. Zerubbabel Endi- 
cott, who lived on the original portion of the 
paternal estate, which became known as the 
Orchard Farm, had never acknowledged the equity 
of the decision of the Court in favor of his brother 
John, which gave to "his heirs and assigns" the 
Bishop Farm. His feelings, then, may be imagined 
when he found his Orchard Farm itself, including- 
the vicinity of the homestead, assailed by persist- 
ent, greedy, and reckless claimants. The facts are 
these : Lands, at later times, had been granted to 
various parties on the north, south, and west of 
the Bishop Farm, now owned by the Nurses. Allen 
had guaranteed to Francis Nurse, according to 



40 WITCH HILL. 

the terms originally given to Bishop, three hundred 
acres. But owners on every side had so fixed their 
boundaries on alleged rights from the courts, that 
this number of acres could not be included within 
its limits without pushing over the claims of some 
one or more of the neighbors. Each stood defi- 
antly upon his own border, and all others agreed, 
as it seems, to combine against Endicott, push the 
Bishop Farm into the Orchard Farm until the re- 
quired acres were obtained. This they did, and, 
after long protracted contests from court to court, 
they triumphed over Endicott, bringing the bound- 
ary line of the strangers over the paternal lands 
within sight of his door. His health and his 
heart were broken. Allen, who was rich, standing 
among the foremost of the metropolitan ministers, 
and in the midst of court friends, fought the battle 
in the interest of the Nurses, as he had stipulated. 
Nathaniel Putnam (let his name be noted in this 
connection) was his chief coadjutor. Putnam 
owned lands bordering on the north-east corner of 
the Bishop Farm, and owned also lands on its south- 
west side. He possessed skill in management, and 
will in execution. Such a fight gave him a con- 
genial inspiration. Endicott at one time sent 
teams and men into a part of the disputed terri- 
tory claimed by Putnam to fell trees and hew 
them into the frame of a house. One morning, 
going to their work, they found neither timber nor 
frame. Putnam had sent men and teams, cleaned 
them all out, and piled them up near his house. 
Endicott sued him and lost his case. Oppression 



WITCH HILL. 41 

seems to have made Endicott mad, though gener- 
ally amiable, wise, and just. The Nurse family 
took no part in the legal process of the strife, but, 
being in possession, they held themselves ready to 
repel aggressions. Endicott, after the case had 
been finally decided against him, was unwise 
enough to send his men into the wood-lot, lost in 
the contest, to cut fire-wood. When they had 
loaded their teams, Nurse's men came and pitched 
the wood off. This " battle of the wilderness " lasted 
two days. Once, at least, Nurse and Endicott were 
there in person, leading to the fight their respective 
forces, for it appears from the records that Nurse 
demanded of the aggressors whose men they were, 
when Endicott stepped forward, saying, " They are 
my men ! " 

Whether the woody and wordy strife ended in 
blows we know not ; but it ended in a lawsuit of 
course, in which Endicott was the loser. 

We need not the testimony that appeared at 
the trials to assure us that the ultimate result 
of these disputes was a general and partisan 
animosity. 

Our narrative next opens upon another occasion 
of strife w 7 hich brings us nearer the main portion 
of our history. It was that which grew out of the 
establishment of Salem Village as a separate parish. 
The farmers of that part of the town lying mainly 
north petitioned in 1670 for the privilege of pro- 
viding a house of worship and minister for them- 
selves. The reasons for this were amply found in 
their distance from the town; but jealousy of the 



42 WITCH HILL. 

town management of society affairs may have 
given its promptings. In 1672 the town consented, 
and the General Conrt gave its legal sanction. 
But several significant conditions were imposed. 
They were not to be exempt from taxes in support 
of the town Church until they had a house of wor- 
ship and had raised a support for a minister of their 
own ; and they were not to form a Church until a 
minister was ordained over them; and such ordina- 
tion was not to take place without the consent 
of the mother Church. The latter portion of 
these terms was as hard for the one party faith- 
fully to perform, as it was inconsistent for the 
other to impose. As we shall see, it engendered 
strife. 

The parish thus commencing its separate career 
was the Salem Village, the locality of the origin 
and general center of the witchcraft movements. 

Besides the fire in the rear from the mother 
Church, the Village had a " border war." 

Between the Village and Ipswich River on the 
north there was a neutral ground, understood not 
to belong to any town by the terms of their grants 
made prior to 1639. At that time the Court gave 
it to Salem, and on its faith Salem Village people 
pushed their clearings into it, and dotted it in a 
few years with their homes. Some years later the 
General Court, with a careless disregard of their 
own previous action, so apparent in the Bishop 
and Orchard Farm quarrel, authorized other parlies 
to settle there independent of the Salem jurisdic- 
tion. Still later, the General Court created the 



WITCH HILL. 43 

town of Topsfield, and included the greater part 
of these lands within its borders. Salem raised its 
voice against this, but was not heard. The Vil- 
lage protested and were disregarded. The settlers 
on the disputed territory, w T ho were thus trans- 
ferred from Salem, without their consent, to the 
outskirts of the new town, held their homes in sul- 
len defiance. Topsfield levied rates upon them 
and payment was refused. Constables and tax 
collectors were sent to them in vain. The matter 
went into the courts, and, what w T as worse, into 
local man-to-man contests. 

John Putnam had gone to these lands, and he 
and his sons had built houses, cultivated fields, and 
planted orchards. One day Jacob Town and John 
How, " Topsfield men," came within his claim and 
cut down trees. Putnam hearing the chopping went 
out and remonstrated ; but as they defied him and 
were two to one, he had to brook the insult. Soon 
after he took a force of sons and nephews to the 
spot, and they took their turn at chopping. The 
sound of the axes brought on the Topsfield men — • 
Isaac Easty, Sen., John Easty, Joseph Town, Jun. 
— who came to put a stop to the proceedings. On 
reaching the spot they warned Putnam off. He 
replied, "The timber now and here cut down has 
been felled by me and my orders ; and I w r ill keep 
cutting and carrying away from this land until 
next March." 

"What! by violence?" interposed the Topsfield 
men. 

"Ay, by violence!" answered Putnam. "You 



44 WITCH HILL. 

may sue me. You know where I dwell;" and, 
turning to his men, he said, "Fall on." The 
Topsfield men, being the weaker party this time, 
beat a retreat, doubtless to recruit and renew the 
attack. 

We shall meet again the actors in this incident. 

This border warfare had been going on for a 
whole generation, widening and intensifying with 
every collision, when the witchcraft delusion broke 
out. 

We turn to relative and nearer views of that 
great event. 




CHAPTER IV. 

®5* §Utk and t$e J^tpf)tr&0» 

THE farmers of Salem Village having obtained 
the privilege, as we have stated, of building a 
church and employing a minister for themselves, 
acted promptly in the matter. A parsonage house 
was built, "forty-two feet in length, twenty feet 
broad, thirteen feet stud, four chimneys, and no 
gable ends." A " lean-to" was added at a later 
time. It was located in the center of the Village, 
and a generous parishioner gave for the use of the 
Pastor five and a half acres of land. An acre of 
land was given near it for the house of worship, 
and one was erected, thirty-four feet by twenty- 
eight, and "sixteen feet between joints." Two 
end galleries and a pulpit canopy were added. 
The town Church having just finished a new 
meeting-house gave the villagers their old pulpit 
and deacon's seat, which were, no doubt with fit- 
ting acknowledgments, received and duly assigned 
their places. 

Thus were these sanctuaries made ready for holy 
purposes, doubtless with devout prayer by many 
that the Divine Presence might fill them. It was 
well, perhaps, that such could not see " the giving 



46 WITCH HILL. 

over to Satan " which should precede his coming. 
They might have been faint and weary in their 
minds during the painful w r aiting. 

The Rev. James Bay ley, a native of Newbury, 
came from that town in 1671 and united with the 
Church in Salem. He was a graduate of Harvard 
College in the class of 1669, and a man of talents, 
culture, and Christian spirit. He was employed 
to preach in the Village. An evil spirit, not from 
the Lord, we think, awaited his coining in the hearts 
of a portion of the people. Whether it was that 
strife had become a seated distemper, or from some 
fancied irregularity in his reception into the Salem 
Church and his coming among them, is not clear. 
As they did not heed the divine counsel to " leave 
off strife before it be meddled with," it became to 
them like the letting out of water. He was em- 
ployed from year to year, amid heated discussions 
and bitter altercations, which, like the breath of a 
pestilence, scattered poison far and wide — in this 
case a deadly moral poison. It reached so de- 
structive a crisis in 1679 that both parties applied 
to the mother Church for conciliatory intervention. 
It was granted and failed. 

The General Court was next appealed to, and 
at first it uttered its mandate to the villagers, in 
behalf of the minister and his friends, with wither- 
ing severity, but toned dow T n, in conclusion, to 
timid advice; the consequence was that it was as 
little heeded as the mother Church, and the con- 
suming fire burned the brighter for these stirrings. 
At this point Mr. Bay ley wisely withdrew from 



WITCH HILL. 47 

the uncomfortable position. More than three to 
one of the parish were numbered among his friends ; 
but his enemies were men of power, among whom 
was Nathaniel Putnam of the Endicott fight. He 
was, however, a generous though a conquering foe. 
He joined with others in a parting gift to Mr. 
Bay ley of " twenty-eight acres of upland, and thir- 
teen of meadow in all." 

During these years of quarrel it will be recol- 
lected that Salem Village had no organized Church, 
as they could not agree among themselves, nor, 
consequently, secure the approbation of the town 
Church in the ordination of a minister. The Gen- 
eral Court, by a special act, had authorized "the 
householders" to do the parish business without 
any reference to their being, or not being, profes- 
sors of religion, and ordered them to choose two 
men to collect the rates and pay the Pastor — to 
be, in fact, Deacons without a Church. 

Mr. Bay ley during his stay at the Village had, 
in addition to his parish troubles, great domestic 
sorrow. His wife and three children had died. 
This, it will' be seen, as well as the former, came 
into sad significance when the troubles of Salem 
Village came to their terrific consummation. His 
wife was Mary Carr, from Salisbury. Her sister 
Ann, w^hen only a child of not quite sixteen, had 
married Sergeant Thomas Putnam, clerk of the 
parish, nephew of Nathaniel, being the oldest son 
of his elder brother. Sergeant Thomas had 
already shown his fighting qualities in a cam- 
paign against the Narragansett Indians. Of 



48 WITCH HILL. 

course, he and his family were partisans of Mr. 
Bayley. 

At a little later period, and quite near the 
witchcraft outbreak, Sergeant Thomas and his 
brother added to their complicity with the border 
and parish strife a quarrel, all their own, over the 
will of their deceased father. 

In 1680 Salem Village invited to their pulpit 
Rev. George Burroughs. He graduated at Har- 
vard College in 1670, and had preached at Casco, 
(now Portland,) Maine, where he had won much 
favor by his self-sacrificing spirit in the common 
dangers and hardships of a new country, as well 
as by his faithful and able performance of the im- 
mediate duty of a minister. He came poor to his 
new flock, and special appropriations were made 
to establish his family in the parsonage. But the 
friends of Mr. Bayley were now the assailants of 
the Pastor. Old animosities were revived with a 
new victim. The parish business was neglected 
and the minister unpaid. At the close of his first 
year his wife died, and he had to contract a debt 
for her decent interment. No wonder that he was 
disgusted, and soon after, abandoning both his 
claims and his sheep, many of whom seemed more 
like wolves, removed from the Village. In 1683 
the parish turned for relief to the Court, stating 
their shepherdless condition, and requesting that 
honorable body to command Mr. Burroughs to 
come to the Villi ge for a mutual investigation of 
accounts. This the Court did, and the Pastor im 
mediately obeyed the summons. 



WITCH HILL. 49 

On his arrival the householders were called 
together, and for several days a quiet, orderly 
settlement was progressing. On the afternoon of 
the third day, when all was approaching a peace- 
ful conclusion, and an opening was seen in the 
angry clouds which had darkened the assembly, 
it suddenly closed, and a storm burst upon the 
people. John Putnam, as chairman of the parish 
Society, had agreed with Burroughs to accept an 
order on the Society, which was yet largely in debt 
to its Pastor, in payment of a personal demand. 
Matters thus stood when the Marshal came in and 
whispered to Putnam. Putnam answers: u You 
know what you have to do ; do your office." The 
Marshal turns to Burroughs and attaches his body 
for Putnam's adjusted claim. Burroughs replies: 
"I have no o;oods to show: I am now reckoning 
with the inhabitants, for we know not yet who is 
in debt ; but here is my body," and after a pause 
adds, " What will you do with me ? " 

The Marshal seemed reluctant to do the shame- 
ful business, turned to Putnam and said, " What 
shall I do ? " Putnam, after conferring with his 
brother Thomas, answered, "Marshal, take your 
prisoner and have him to the ordinary, and secure 
him till morning." The " ordinary " was the pub- 
lic-house used as a lock-up. In the course of this 
proceeding on the part of Putnam, Deacon Inger- 
sall, the intimate friend of the Putnams, but a just 
and brave man for the right, arose in the meeting 
and, addressing John Putnam, said, " Lieutenant, 
I wonder you attach Mr. Burroughs for the money 



50 WITCH PULL. 

when, to my knowledge, you and Mr. Burroughs 
have reckoned and balanced accounts two or three 
times since, as you say, it was due ; and you never 
made any mention of it when you reckoned with 
Mr. Burroughs." 

John Putnam answered, "It is true, and I 
own it." 

Nathaniel Ingersall and others then interposed, 
became security for Burroughs's debt to Putnam, 
and saved him from imprisonment. The friendly 
settlement was brought thus suddenly to a close, 
and Burroughs again left the Village. 

Our adieus to the good man are mingled with 
sadness for his wrongs. When, under still more 
painful circumstances, we bestow upon him our 
farewell blessings, it will be in sadder and deeper 
tones. 

The people of Salem Village were not depend- 
ent upon the presence of the Pastor for a first-class 
quarrel, though they had found such a presence 
convenient for that object. Their parish records 
had been badly kept. Decisions had been entered 
in them which, it was alleged, had never been 
voted, and important votes had not been recorded. 
Many meetings were called on the matter, and 
stormy sessions were held. Then, as a reserve 
force, lest the fighting zeal should flag, some one 
ascertained, or thought he did, that the title to 
their ministry lands was not good — that somebody 
was to blame about it, and ought to set the busi- 
ness right. Disputes were thrown in about the use 
of lands around the meeting-house. No wonder, 



WITCH HILL. 51 

then, that when, in 1684, the Rev. Deodat Lawson 
commenced his ministry among them he had 
shown a reluctance to respond to their call. He 
was a man of learning, ability, and, as we shall 
have occasion to know, of pulpit power. For 
awhile, at least, these other materials for strife left 
the Pastor in comparative peace. But when, in 1686, 
they submitted the question of his ordination to a 
parish meeting, they did not give the required vote. 

Failing to come to terms on disputed questions, 
in 1687, at a legal meeting, the householders put 
the debated questions into the hands of a large 
committee, with Lieutenant, now " Captain " John 
Putnam as chairman, for settlement, wisely adding 
that if they could not agree they should submit 
them to the reverend Elders of the town, in 
connection with Major Gedney and John Ha- 
thorne, Esqs. 

Of course the Village committee did not agree, 
and the above gentlemen, with William Brown, Jr., 
Esq., added, took up the matter. 

Their report goes straight to the mark. They 
tell the Villagers that the steps toward the ordina- 
tion of Mr. Law 7 son had not been altogether " inof- 
fensively " managed ; that the hinderances to it 
were not of sufficient weight to be decisive ; that 
their " uncomely reflections, tossed to and fro," 
would, if not timely prevented, " let out peace and 
order, and let in confusion and every evil work." 
After appending some suggestions about their 
records, and that their spirits " should be better 
quieted and composed " before proceeding to 

4 



52 WITCH HILL. 

ordination, they close the report by curtly remark- 
ing, " But if our advice be rejected we wish you 
better, and hearts to follow it ; and only add, if you 
will unreasonably trouble yourselves, we pray you 
not any further to trouble us." 

The Villagers called a meeting, heard the report, 
and voted to " accept of and embrace " its advice, 
but added, " in general, not in parts ;" which meant, 
we suppose, that they would accept such of it as 
they liked — that is, walk by their own counsels as 
heretofore. They did succeed, in some measure, 
in righting their records, but not in voting to or- 
dain Mr. Lawson ; and he, not seeing a prospect of 
their minds being sufficiently composed for that 
purpose, left them. While Mr. Lawson was 
preaching at the Village he lost his wife and 
daughter. It is singular that domestic as well 
as parish troubles should have attended each of 
their pastors. 

If the flock up to this period had annoyed the 
shepherds, they were now to reap as they had 
sown, and take their turn in being annoyed. Rev. 
Thomas Parris was invited, with a unity of action 
and feeling unusual with the Village, to be their 
minister. He played shy, begged time to con- 
sider so weighty a matter, wearied the fathers of 
the parish in his protracted negotiations, drew 
out "the younger men," made with them sharp 
terms of compensation, engaged himself to them 
early in 1689, and was ordained the latter part of 
the same year. Thus the Village had, at last, a 
Church. 



WITCH HILL. 53 

The rainbow of peace, at Mr. Parris's coming, 
was dimly seen through the parting clouds which 
had so long discharged upon Salem Village its 
devastating storms. But it soon closed, and the 
heavens grew blacker, threatening still severer 
tempests. 

In the bargain which the Pastor had made with 
"Young America" he had received at least en- 
couragement that the parsonage and the ministry 
lands should be conveyed to him and his heirs in 
their sole and perpetual right. This feature of the 
contract leaked out and raised a storm. Yet 
somehow, nobody knew how, a record found its 
way to the parish books covering such agreement 
which the parish had never made. There were 
excited gatherings to consider the matter; fierce 
words were uttered ; old animosities were revived 
with intensified elements ; parties re-arranged them- 
selves defiantly face to face, and the Church, 
dedicated to the God of peace, began to have an 
earnest of the scenes which soon awaited it. 

Some of the most skillful managers and persist- 
ent workers were banded against Mr. Parris. He 
had a Church for awhile subservient to him, and 
he played the Church against the parish, and, in 
his extremity, through them invoked the court 
against his opposers. He threw around his relig- 
ious services, especially his Church meetings, an 
awe-inspiring solemnity which he was accused of 
using to carry selfish, worldly ends, and to crush 
his enemies. In the former quarrels it was an 
exacting parish against yielding ministers. Now 



54 WITCH HILL. 

parish and minister were well matched, and the 
fight was a grand one to all the enemies of 
religion. 

We shall leave Mr. Parris for awhile on the eve 
of being crushed by the leading spirits of the op- 
position. When next we meet him we shall find 
him master of the situation, with a skillfully 
changed mode of attack and new weapons. 




CHAPTER V. 

¥E have seen how the people of Salem Village 
sowed the wind. Before giving the details of 
the whirlwind which they reaped, we panse to show 
that they were not sinners above all their genera- 
tion because they suffered such things; and that 
their credulity as to certain Satanic influences, 
which served to conduct the lightning of the storm 
down upon their devoted heads, was not peculiar 
to them, but was common to their own and many 
preceding ages, and included all classes of the 
people. >v ^._ 

The term witchcraft had obtained a peculiar 
meaning. Those accepting and using it believed 
that the devil entered into a specific covenant 
with certain persons, and, through them, and in 
accordance with the terms of this covenant, he 
wrought great evil in the Church of Christ, tortur- 
ing the bodies and destroying the souls of men. 
They held that much of his power to oppose the 
kingdom of grace in the world was wholly de- 
pendent upon this voluntary human agency. He 
came in various forms to those whom he would 
make agents, generally as "the black man," but 
often in the "shape or " apparition" of those already 



56 WITCH HILL. 

in league with him. A book was presented and a 
formal bargain proposed. ") Of course, the seducer 
being master of all the arts of deception, the terms 
were varied to suit the character and moral condi- 
tion of the victim. The deceiver promised on his 
part to make his confederates rich, eloquent, gifted 
in the fine arts, great in physical strength, ac- 
cording to the terms of the specific bargain. He 
conferred upon them truly wonderful powers, ac- 
cording to this strange belief. They could raise a 
storm at sea which should baffle the skill of the 
most experienced seaman and overcome the re- 
sistance of the strongest ships, sweep over the 
land with a tornado, rend forests, unroof houses, 
and, as was their special delight, demolish the 
churches. Fire and plague did their bidding. 
They could pinch, throttle, burn, set on and, crush 
those whom they wished to afflict ; and, more than 
this, deprive them of reason, and take their lives. 
They could blight the fruits of the earth and send 
poverty and desolation through a whole com- 
munity. In all this they delighted. Having trans- 
ferred their allegiance from God to the devil, they 
ruled with him in this lower world. They were 
not, of course, obliged to be present in person 
where they wrought this evil. They could go in 
their Ci shape" or " apparition," or send their repre- 
sentative in the form of some animal, as a dog, 
black cat, hog, toad, mouse, or rat. "A yellow- 
bird" figures prominently in this mythology, and 
we shall have an opportunity to become quite well 
acquainted with it. These witch kings and queens 



WITCH HILL. 57 

had their courtiers to do their bidding, and in 
such a courtly form as well befitted them. A 
spider commonly represented them, and sad it was 
for a poor accused person, when cast into a dusty, 
unsvvept, and unused cell, if the keeper found near 
her person a spider which he failed to capture. 

The witches had conferred upon them an exten- 
sive range of knowledge, yet they seem not to 
have anticipated any of the modern methods of 
travel, but continued, from one generation to an- 
other, in the same old witch way of passing through 
the air on a stick; and, as we learn from sundry 
witnesses under oath in court, they often took their 
new recruits behind them. 

Shakspeare expresses the belief of his day in 
the power of witches in the following eloquent 
language : 

I conjure you by that which you profess, 

Howe'er you come to know it, answer me ; 

Though you undo the winds and let them fight 

Against the churches; though the yeasty waves 

Confound and swallow navigation up ; 

Though bladed corn be lodged, and trees blown down; 

Though castles topple on their warder's head; 

Though palaces and pyramids do slope 

Their heads to their foundations; though the treasures 

Of nature's genius tumble all together, 

Even till destruction sicken ; answer me 

To what I answer you. — Macbeth. 

Witch science taught that the devil set his 
mark upon the bodies of his confederates, and that 
the place marked became callous and dead, losing 
utterly its sensibility, so that it might be pricked 



58 WITCH HILL. 

or cut without producing pain. These marks some- 
times assumed the form of teats, from which the 
imps received their nourishment. 

This science also taught that witches made 
representatives of persons they wished to torment, 
called puppets: a doll, the figure of animals, or 
even a roll of rags, were used as such representa- 
tives. When these were pinched, pricked, cuffed, 
or crushed, the like happened to the victims 
selected. An eminent minister of Boston, a great 
and good man, whom we shall meet in the course 
of our story, expresses an opinion that the witches 
sometimes used their own bodies as puppets, pinch- 
ing and pricking themselves, for instance, that 
others might be pricked and pinched ; but we are 
incredulous as to such an unselfish practice of 
witches, unless indeed it was in some extreme case, 
when they were hard pressed for the means of 
tormenting. ) 

We need not say how utterly unsupported by 
Scripture, reason, or facts this whole witchcraft 
theory was. But law-makers believed it, and con- 
formed their legislation to their faith. If a person 
was accused of being a witch, and of having tor- 
tured, or even murdered, a specified individual, 
it was in vain that he proved that he was in 
another place, even a thousand miles away, at the 
time of the murder. The law recognized his capa- 
bility of committing the act in apparition or by 
an imp. 

Provisions were made by legislation for a search 
by a jury of the same sex, a surgeon being present, 



WITCH HILL. 59 

of all parts of the body of an accused person. 
Any callous or unusual marks, such as aged per- 
sons or persons who had been subjects of special 
bodily inflictions were liable to have, were easily 
sworn to by excited, credulous people, as witch- 
marks. 

It was believed that the devil sought shining 
marks in those with whom he sought to make 
covenants, and that aged and prominent Church 
members of life-long, unsullied reputation were 
especially desired. We can readily credit so 
much as to our arch Accuser's desire, but the light 
consideration which witchcraft believers put upon 
long years of undoubted piety, when weighed 
against specter accusations, was very sad, as we 
shall have occasion to feel. 

Not only law-makers, but the highest courts 
throughout the world, gave their sanction to witch- 
craft. Sir Matthew Hale, the great and good judge 
of England in the middle of the seventeenth centu- 
ry, threw his influence in its favor. The execution 
of two females, in 1664, who were tried before him 
and received the death sentence from his lips, gave 
the sanction of his great name to the delusion, and 
was used in vindication of their conduct by the 
American judges at Salem. ) 

The seventeenth century may be termed the 
great witchcraft century. In it many books were 
written in its favor by some great and good men, 
as well as by many weak and foolish ones. King 
James of England, a pretentious but weak ruler, 
wrote in its support, and the Parliament, to flatter 



60 WITCH HILL. 

him, echoed his opinions in bloody laws. Perhaps 
it was by the same influence that the words 
" witch " and " witchcraft " were introduced in our 
present version of the Scriptures, which was made 
in his reign, thus seeming to give the sanction of 
the Bible to assumptions concerning demonology 
which it nowhere teaches. 

The physicians every- where shouted " vive la 
witchcraft." It was a godsend to them, for when 
they had in charge a patient whose case baffled 
their skill it was a convenient resort to insinuate 
that "an evil hand" was npon him, or plainly to 
refer the trouble to witch inflictions. 

Thus established in the popular faith and en- 
throned in high places, witchcraft for many gen- 
erations swept over the nations like the angel of 
death. In the year 1515 five hundred were burned 
in Geneva in three months. " Almost an infinite 
number," says one writer, " were burned for witch- 
craft in France "—a thousand in a single diocese. 
A modern German -writer on witchcraft history 
says that in Bamberg alone, between 1624 and 1630, 
there were seven hundred and eighty-five processes 
against witches. In England and Scotland the 
executions were numerous, attended by the most 
painful details, and quite as devoid of reason and 
humanity as those occurring in Salem. 

The spirit with which the witchcraft prosecutions 
were carried on in England is well-illustrated by 
the following incident. 

A man by the name of Matthew Hopkins, 
shrewdly taking advantage of the public infatua- 



WITCH HILL. 61 

tion, made witch detection a profession. He styled 
himself a " Witch-finder General." He traveled 
over the country under the sanction of the govern- 
ment, fastening suspicion upon whomsoever he 
pleased, having his expenses paid from the public 
treasury, and drawing a fee for each person con- 
victed, thus being stimulated by a bribe to make 
the number as large as his love of gain might be 
greedy. In one year, in one county alone, three- 
score died under his hand. He was armed with 
the power to torture, which he used in a manner 
to entitle him to an official position in a papal 
inquisition. A venerable clergyman of the Church 
of England was hanged through the application 
of his detective policy. 

But the English race on either continent have 
never shown that it was safe, for any great length 
of time, to presume upon their credulity as a basis 
of oppression. Hopkins had adopted, among other 
absurd methods of detecting witches, this one : 
He tied the thumb of the right hand to the great 
toe of the left foot, thus doubling his victim into 
a painful position; a rope was then tied to him 
and he was dragged through a river or pond. If 
he floated, he was condemned as a witch. Having 
practiced this outrage a little too long, some gen- 
tlemen applied the test to himself, tied his thumb 
and toe together, and dragged him through a pond. 
He floated, and stood condemned by his own test. 
If he had not floated it is likely he would have 
been drowned, which would have been a befit- 
ting end for the wretch. As it was, his official 



62 WITCH HILL. 

career as Witch-finder General thus ingloriously 
closed. 

We turn to glance at the relation of the Ameri- 
can colonies to this universal delusion at the 
time when the darkening clouds were gathering 
over Salem Village, s 




CHAPTER VI. 

JH t a n g t ® !) it su g $♦ 

IT could not be supposed that so prevalent a 
belief as that we have described in the last 
chapter would be rejected by the early settlers of 
America, surrounded as they had been by it in the 
Old World. 

Even the thoughtful and devout Penn presided 
at a witchcraft trial, and failed, it is said, to secure 
the execution of the accused only by an infor- 
mality in the indictment. 

Margaret Jones of Charlestown was hanged in 
Boston in 1648, after a trial for witchcraft in 
w T hich all the frivolous circumstances were allowed 
in evidence which so disgraced the Salem courts. 
In 1656 a Mrs. Hibbins, a sister of the then acting 
lieutenant-governor, a widow of a man of wealth, 
and an excellent, sensible woman, was hanged in 
Boston for witchcraft, the General Court itself con- 
demning her, and designating lecture-day, " pres- 
ently after the lecture," as the time. 

Hartford, Springfield, and other places, had 
visitations of the pestilential disease. But we 
leave the details of these to notice certain very 
strange occurrences, quite near enough to Salem 
Village for it to feel their full influence. These 



64 WITCH HILL. 

were used, it will be seen, as occasions for accusa- 
tions of witchcraft, and they did quicken and 
deepen the belief in its reality. Yet they may be 
considered, we think, entirely aside from that be- 
lief, and wholly on their own merits. We refer to 
strange acting of children in various places, to 
noises which could not be accounted for, and seem- 
ing life given to material things which rattled 
loosely about the house. We give a few examples. V 

The following is an extract from a detailed ac- 
count of Elizabeth Knapp, of Groton, by her Pas- 
tor, the Rev. Samuel Willard. It is contained in 
"The Mather Papers." Mr. Willard was after- 
ward minister of the Old South Church in Boston, 
and was creditably connected with the witchcraft 
of 1692. 
/ "This poor and miserable object, about a fort- 
night before she was taken, we observed to carry 
herself in a strange and unwonted manner. Some- 
times she would give sudden shrieks, and if we in- 
quired a reason, would always put us off with some 
excuse, and then would burst forth into immoder- 
ate and extravagant laughter, in such a wise as 
sometimes she fell on to the ground with it. I 
myself observed oftentimes a strange change in 
her countenance, and could not suspect the true 
reason, but conceived she might be ill, and divers 
times inquired how she did, and she always an- 
swered, ' Well ; ' which made me wonder. But the 
tragedy began to unfold itself about Monday, 
October 30, 1671, on this manner, (as I received 
by credible information, being that day myself 



WITCH HILL. 65 

gone from home.) In the evening, a little before 
she went to bed, sitting by the fire, she cried out, 
c O, my legs ! ' and clapt her hands on them ; imme- 
diately, ' O, my heart ! ' and removed her hand 
thither ; and forthwith, ' O, I am strangled ! ' and 
put her hands on her throat. Those who observed 
her could not see what to make of it, whether she 
was in earnest or dissembled, and in this manner 
they left her complaining her breath was stopt. 
Next day she was in a strange frame, as was ob- 
served by divers persons, sometimes weeping, some- 
times laughing, and making many apish gestures. 
In the evening going into the cellar she shrieked 
suddenly, and being inquired as to the cause, she 
answered that she saw two persons in the cellar; 
whereupon some went down with her to search, 
but found none, she also looking with them. At 
last she turned her head, and looking one way 
steadily, used the expression, 'What cheer, old 
man? ' which they that were with her took for a 
fancy and so ceased. Afterwards, the same even- 
ing, the rest of the family being in bed, she was, 
as one lying in the room saw, and she herself 
afterward related, suddenly thrown down into the 
midst of the floor with violence, and taken with a 
violent fit, whereupon the whole family was raised, 
and with much ado was she kept out of the fire from 
destroying herself. After which time she was fol- 
lowed by fits from thence till the Sabbath-day, in 
which she was violent in bodily motions, leapings, 
strainings, and strange agitations, scarce to be 
held in bounds by the strength of three or four; 



66 WITCH HILL. 

violent also in roarings and screamings, represent- 
ing a dark resemblance of hellish torments, and 
frequently using in these fits divers words, some- 
times crying out ' Money, money ! ' sometimes, ' Sin 
and misery ! ' with other words." 

The physician was wisely called, w T ho, thinking 
that her trouble might be, in part at least, a bodily 
one, prescribed for her. The Christian friends re- 
sorted to earnest prayer. Her afflictions went on 
for several weeks. She for awhile denied any 
covenant with the devil, though she claimed that 
he had appeared to her for several years and in 
various forms, urging her "to sign the book." 
Later she indulged in many contradictions about 
the matter, but finally settled down in persistent 
denial. She also claimed to be bewitched, and 
named a worthy woman of the neighborhood as 
the tormentor. When the accused was brought 
into her presence she was terribly tortured, even, 
as it was alleged, before she knew of her presence. 
But Mr. Willard was cautious in receiving such 
evidence against one otherwise known to be good, 
though the girl affirmed that her apparition in a 
riding-hood had come down the chimney to her 
that night. But the Pastor watched and cross- 
questioned her, and, detecting her in some twist- 
ings, refused her credit against the accused. The 
result was that the girl ceased impeaching. This 
will be remembered to the minister's credit when 
we come to contrast his management with that of 
the courts at the Salem trials. 

Her acting at last took a new turn. She crow cd 



WITCH HILL. 67 

like a cock and barked like a dog. This was im- 
proved by a voice speaking within her — " a grum, 
low, yet audible voice it was." It was the Sab- 
bath when this commenced, and it railed against 
the girl's parents for " going to hear a black rogue 
who told them nothing but a parcel of lies." 
When Mr. Willard came in the voice called out, 
" O, you are a great rogue ! " He called for a light, 
sat down and watched her organs of speech while 
the voice heaped abuse upon him, and he declares 
that he could detect no motion, not even of the 
lips, when the letters b, m, and p, were in frequent 
use. J 

Mr. Willard does not strongly affirm the super- 
natural source of all this strange acting, but plain- 
ly leans to the opinion that it was diabolical. 

Governor Hutchinson, referring to this case in 
his history, though he gives no details, calls the 
girl "a ventriloqua." The reader is at liberty 
to adopt the opinion of either the governor or 
minister. 

The story of the Goodwin children, whose act 
ing occurred in 1688, as related by Cotton Mather, 
is well known, and we need give only an item or 
two of its long story. 

There were four children affected by the pecul- 
iar inspiration, the oldest being only about thir- 
teen years old. Barking and mewing were parts 
of their accomplishments, to which they added fly- 
ing. "Yea, they would fly like geese, and be 
carried with incredible swiftness, having but just 
their toes now and then upon the ground, some- 



68 WITCH HILL. 

times not once in twenty feet, and their arras 
waved like the wings of a bird." 

One of the children had less pleasant exercises. 
She was roasted, she said, in an oven, and the per- 
spiration, at the same time, streamed from her 
face. Suddenly she received a dash of cold water, 
and she shivered and quaked under the violent 
transition. She bounded about the rooms and up 
the stairs on the back of an invisible horse, which 
came unbidden to her service. 

Mr. Mather kindly took her to his house to try 
the effects of religious influence upon her, especially 
that of prayer in her behalf, and, we presume, to 
detect, if possible, any trick or dissembling. His 
qualifications for the latter service were, it must 
be conceded, much less than those of Mr. Willard. 

Among the girl's wonderful doings in Mr. 
Mather's home was, not her speaking unknown 
tongues, but her understanding them. The min- 
ister was a young man of wonderful attainments, 
and, one day, not wishing the girl to know what 
he said to a third person, he talked in Latin. She 
looked knowingly, and he believed she understood 
him ; he then continued the conversation in Greek ; 
she had the same understanding of what he said. 
Amazed, he talked away in Hebrew, but she at 
once, and with the same ease, apprehended it. 
Even a Doctor of Divinity in these days would have 
been cornered by this time, but not so Mr. Mather, 
who, although not at this time a D. D., could con- 
verse in seven languages ; hence, nothing daunted, 
he rattled on in the Iroquois language. The girl, or, 



WITCH HILL. 69 

as Mr. Mather inferred, the evil spirit which pos- 
sessed her, not understanding Iroquois, was de- 
feated in this strife of tongues. 

But a stranger case occurred in Newbury, com- 
mencing in 1679, which, as it was nearer Salem 
Village, must have exerted a more decided influ- 
ence upon it than any other. We shall give it 
more in detail, and if the reader observes closely 
all the circumstances he will be able to form his 
own opinion of their character. The study of 
such facts is necessary to a just and thorough 
understanding of the witchcraft history. 

William Morse's house was strangely assailed. 
An old sailor by the name of Caleb Powell, hap- 
pening to be on shore, went, with an incredulous 
mind, to see the "tippings" and to hear the "rap- 
pings." Morse and his wife had living with 
them a grandson, a mere boy as it seems. Powell 
condoled with the old people in their fright, and 
charged the mischief upon the boy. He affirmed 
also that he knew something of the black-art, and 
that by astrology and astronomy he could find out 
whether there were diabolical transactions about 
the house of Morse, and he thought he should try. 
This brought the court down upon the sailor, and 
he was tried for witchcraft, but acquitted. During 
the trial the following testimony was rendered. 
We make selections, exhibiting fairly its char- 
acter : 

" The testimony of William Morse, which saith, 
together with his wife, aged about sixty-five years, 
that, Thursday night, being the twenty-seventh 



70 WITCH HILL. 

day of November, we heard a great noise without, 
round the house, of knocking the boards of the 
house, and, as we conceived, throwing of stones 
against the house. Whereupon myself and wife 
looked out and saw nobody, and the boy all this time 
with us; but we had stones and sticks thrown at 
us that we were forced to retire into the house 
again. Afterward we went to bed, and the boy 
with us ; and then the noise was upon the roof of 
the house. . . . The next morning a stick of 
links hanging in the chimney, they were thrown 
out of their place, and we hanged them up again, 
and they were thrown down again and some into 
the fire. . . . 

" The next day being Saturday, stones, sticks, 
and pieces of brick came down, (the chimney,) so 
that we could not quietly cook our breakfast ; and 
sticks of fire also came down at the same time. 

" The next day, being the Sabbath, many stones 
and sticks and pieces of bricks came down the 
chimney. On Monday, Mr. Richardson and my 
brother being there, the frame of my cow house 
they saw very firm. I sent my boy out to scare 
the fowls from my hog's meat ; he went to the cow 
house and it fell down, my boy crying with the 
hurt of the fall. In the afternoon, the pots hang- 
ing over the fire did dash so vehemently one 
against the other, we sat down one that they might 
not dash to pieces. I saw the andiron leap into 
the pot, and dance and leap out again, and leap 
on a table and there abide, and my wife saw the 
andiron on the table. Also I saw the pot turn 



WITCH HILL. 71 

itself over, and throw down all the water. Again 
we saw a tray with wool leap up and down, and 
throw the wool out, and so many times, and saw 
nobody meddle with it. Again a tub, his hoop fly 
off of itself and the tub turn over, and nobody 
near it. Again the woolen wheel turned upside 
down and stood up on its end and a spade sat on 
it. Stephen Greenleafe saw it, and myself and my 
wife. . . . Again, my wife and boy making the 
bed, the chest did open and shut ; the bedclothes 
could not be made to lie on the bed, but fly off 
again." 

The neighbors, of course, came in to see these 
wonders, some of whom give their testimony : 

" John Dole saw a pine stick of candle-wood to 
fall down, a stove, and fire-brand ; and these things 
he saw not what way they came, till they fell down 
by him. 

" The same was observed by John Tucker ; the 
boy was in one corner, whom they saw and observed 
all the while, and saw no motion in him." 

Mr. Powell came in at this point in the affair, 
and, after considerable solicitation, was permitted 
to remove the boy from his grandparents, after 
which, as the grandfather testifies, they had entire 
quiet. It seems, however, that lie returned, for 
the testimony shows a renewal of a great deal 
more of the strange proceedings, with the boy 
present. Anthony Morse, brother of William, 
testifies to being at his brother's house and seeing 
some of the most extraordinary of these actings. 
Powell testifies that, looking in the window at one 



72 WITCH HILL. 

time when Morse was at prayer, he saw the boy 
throw a shoe at the old man's head. 

Powell was competent to testify to what he saw, 
but he did not come to Morse's house, as we under- 
stand the testimony to say, until after what we have 
above quoted transpired. How much of the above 
is " rose-colored " we cannot tell ; but we must 
remember that it was given under oath, and is a 
testimony to a matter-of-fact, and not of mere 
opinion. If it be true that two persons saw " the 
andiron leap into the pot, and dance and leap out 
again, and leap on a table and there abide," it is 
plain that the boy could not have done so much, 
though he could throw a shoe at his grandfather's 
head while he was at prayer. 

Those who assume that there was the presence 
here of evil, invisible spirits, easily dispose of the 
fact of the quiet in the boy's absence by the in- 
ference that it was a part of the diabolism to fix 
the responsibility upon some human agent, and thus 
precipitate witchcraft executions. 

Failing to convict Powell, the authorities carried 
the poor old grandmother to Boston, where she 
was tried and sentenced to be hanged, but was 
pardoned by Governor Bradstreet against the 
popular clamor. 



CHAPTER VII. 

®Jk @uck* 

THE facts that we have narrated must have had 
their influence upon the people of Salem Village. 
Their disputes embittered their spirits. The occur- 
rence of Satanic operations, as they believed, all 
about them, inflamed their feelings of resentment. 
They considered, in common with all the colonists, 
this land theirs, not only as to the encroachments 
of men opposed to their particular political and 
religious views, but as to these evident, malicious 
intents of the devil. They believed this new 
country to be a peculiarly advantageous field for 
the triumph of the Gospel ; and the arch enemy, 
jealous of this fact, as they thought, seemed to be 
challenging them to a contest for this advantage, 
and they were not the men to receive such a 
defiant challenge tamely. Lieutenant Governor 
Danforth, on the strength of present manifestations, 
had begun to make arrests for witchcraft, and the 
prison doors had been closed on several suspected 
persons. 

In addition to these already stated reasons for 
morbid excitement, early writers on this subject 
have suggested the recent death of some of the 
fathers, the departure now of nearly all of those 



74 WITCH HILL. 

whose counsels had been trusted, and whose lead- 
ership had been confidently followed. Besides, 
their political affairs were in a confused state. The 
King had taken away their charter, and they stood 
trembling before the incoming order of things, not 
knowing what evil should befall them. Within 
were fightings, and without were fears. 

If there were to be severer contests either with 
visible or invisible powers, the people of Salem 
Village, as we have seen, were not made of the 
stuff to be neutral. They were the steam-engine, 
on or off the track — if on, carrying the blessings 
of a Christian civilization with marvelous rapidity 
into the hitherto unbroken forests ; if off, precipi- 
tating a terrific destruction, the dismal sound of 
which is heard through the world, and will go 
down through succeeding ages. As they did, in 
one case at least, run off the track, we shall now 
pursue the immediate history of the melancholy 
affair, and shall try to show the true character of 
the victims who have at length been dragged from 
beneath the rubbish. 

In the winter of 1691-92 a circle was formed in 
Salem Village for entertainment, and for practice 
in the black-arts. It consisted mostly of young 
girls, but had, as we shall see, some adult persons 
connected with it. It met in different private 
houses, and, among others, at the house of Mr. 
Parris, the Pastor. 

The members of this circle, or "the afflicted 
persons," as they were called, are to appear 
so prominently in our story that the reader will 



WITCH HILL. 75 

be interested in an introduction to each one of 
them. 

Mr. Parris had in his family two slaves, man 
and wife, whom he had brought from one of the 
Spanish West India Islands. The man was known 
as John Indian, and his wife as Tituba. They 
were members of the circle, or, at least, prompted 
its formation, and seemed to have supplied it with 
material for excitement from their knowledge of 
the superstitious stories and practices of their ig- 
norant race. 

Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Parris, was nine 
years of age. She met in the circle and graduated 
into a brief course of public acting, after which she 
was removed by her father from the Village. 

Abigail Williams, a niece of Mr. Parris, a mem- 
ber of his family, was eleven years of age; she 
drank fully of the spirit of the circle in her attend- 
ance, and exercised her acquisitions to the end of 
the witchcraft proceedings. 

Ann Putnam, daughter of Sergeant Thomas 
Putnam, whose mother was Ann (Carr) Putnam, 
was twelve years old, and will become painfully 
well known to the reader, as will her mother, who 
acted a conspicuous part with her daughter in the 
bloody tragedies. 

Mary Walcot, seventeen years old, belonged 
also to a good family, her father, Captain Jonathan 
Walcot, having acted as deacon of the parish for 
several years, though not a Church member. 

Mary Lewis, aged seventeen, a servant-girl in 
the family of Rev. George Burroughs, and after- 



76 WITCH HILL. 

ward of Thomas Putnam, was an eminent graduate 
of the circle. 

Elizabeth Hubbard, also seventeen years of age, 
niece of the wife of Dr. Griggs, physician of the 
village, and a member of his household, proved 
her training in the circle by her subsequent distin- 
guished acting. 

Mary Warren, twenty years old, servant in the 
family of John Proctor, and Sarah Churchhill, also 
twenty, servant of George Jacobs, Sen., were bad- 
ly eminent. 

Besides Mrs. Ann Putnam, these girls bad the 
co-operation of a Mrs. Pope, a woman by the name 
of Bibber, and an " ancient" lady by the name of 
Goodell. 

During the winteivthe circle developed a facility 
for strange acting. They crept under benches and 
chairs, into holes, uttered piercing cries, were 
thrown into painful positions, fell down in terrible 
fits, and suffered agonizing tortures. The families 
where they met were of course alarmed. The 
neighborhood became excited, Dr. Griggs was 
called in, and, their case being out of the beaten 
track of his practice, he pronounced it a genuine 
type of witchcraft. 

The girls grew bold from the attention paid 
them, and extended their operations to the social 
and public meetings. On Sunday, March 2, 1692, 
as Mr. Lawson, who occiqried the pulpit that day, 
was about to rise to preach, Abigail Williams 
cried out, " Now stand up and name your text ! " 
and added, when he had read it, " It's a long text. 1 ' 



WITCH HILL. 77 

When the preacher was in the midst of his sermon 
Mrs. Pope exclaimed, "Now, there is enough of 
that." When, in the afternoon, the preacher re- 
ferred to the doctrine of the morning sermon, Abi- 
gail Williams shouted, "'I know no doctrine you 
had. If you did name one I have forgot it." 

An aged member of the Church was present 
against whom a warrant was then held for her 
apprehension as a witch. Abigail Williams called 
out her name in the public congregation, saying, 
"Look where she sits upon the beam, sucking her 
yellow-bird betwixt her fingers." Ann Putnam 
chimed in, "There is a yellow-bird sitting on the 
minister's hat, as it hangs on the pin in the pulpit." 

The preacher persevered in the service in spite 
of these interruptions, no ona restraining the girls. 
It was generally referred to "an evil hand," and 
the girls only pitied as " afflicted children." Let it 
be remembered that among those who took an 
opposite view and absented themselves from meet- 
ing were several members of the family of Francis 
Nurse. John Proctor, at a later period in their 
actings, said he should take his wench home (re- 
ferring to his servant-girl, Mary Warren) and 
whip her. One cannot help wishing that the ex- 
periment of a whipping all round had been tried 
upon the girls just at this point, followed by their 
separation from each other at a distance from the 
Village. Instead of which they were soothingly 
addressed as "poor girls," and praying circles 
formed in their behalf, which might wisely have 
been preceded and followed by a scriptural use of 



78 WITCH HILL. 

the rod. Their symptoms growing worse, the 
ministers of the neighborhood were called in, and 
a day was spent by them in prayer at the parson- 
age. The children performed before their eyes to 
their amazement. Their judgment was that u an 
evil hand" was upon them. This, of course, was 
soon known far and w^ide, and the excited peo- 
ple flocked to see the dreadful exhibitions. The 
ground of the farmer remained untitled, and the 
work of the mechanic remained unperformed. The 
torch was already set to the inflammable materials, 
and no man could subdue the fire that was kin- 
dled. Bentley says : " The torrent of opinion was 
irresistible. They who thought they saw the de- 
lusion did not oppose it. They who were deluded 
were terrified into distraction." 

The fundamental error of the witchcraft theory 
— that there must be a voluntary human agent 
through whom the devil was afflicting the girls 
and beginning his destruction of the substance and 
the souls of the people — was applied here, and the 
inquiry was whispered " with white lips," and 
passed through every family, "Who are the 
witches ? " 

This brings us to the sad history of the first 
victims. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

" rilHE afflicted persons " began cautiously to ut- 
1 terthe names of" Good," "Osburn," "Tituba." 
On the 29th of February, 1692, warrants were issued 
against them on the complaint of three of the most 
prominent men in the village, two of whom, at least, 
at a later period of the delusion, were among those 
who distrusted the wisdom of the proceedings. 

The accused were duly indicted and brought 
forward for examination. All of the indictments 
are in much the same fojm. They charge the 
prisoners with " certain detestable arts called witch- 
crafts and sorceries, wickedly and feloniously used, 
practiced and exercised," by which the persons 
named were "tortured, afflicted, pined, consumed, 
wasted, and tormented." 

On the first of March the two most distinguished 
magistrates of the vicinity, Jonathan Corwin and 
John Hathorne, came in their official capacity to 
Salem Village. They were from eminent families, 
were men whom their fellow-citizens had delighted 
to honor for their abilities, learning, and integrity. 
Though we may find them evidently prejudiced 
against those whom they came to examine, they 



80 WITCH HILL. 

were no more so, probably, than the most of the 
judges as well as people about them. 

It was a memorable day when they rode into 
the village and reined up at Deacon Nathaniel 
Ingersoll's door, attended by sheriffs, marshals, 
and all the solemn pomp and impressive ceremony 
which then more than now were thrown about the 
movements of high officials. 

The crowd was great, and the court adjourned 
from "the ordinary" to the meeting-house, which 
was filled with excited spectators, whose feverish 
emotions may be partially understood by those 
who crowded the public assemblies during the 
critical periods of the late war. The judges took 
their seats before a raised platform in front of the 
pulpit. Beside them was seated Ezekiel Cheever 
as secretary. No counsel appeared for the ac- 
cused, and, in this case, no friends. They were 
already tried and condemned in the public mind. 
The court was opened by prayer, and the prisoners 
were brought forward. The officers on delivering 
them to the authorities said that they " had made 
diligent search for images and such like, but could 
find none." 

Sarah Good was the first examined. She was a 
homeless, friendless, and wretched person, whose 
ignorant and weak husband had forsaken her, and 
whose children wandered with her from door to 
door begging their daily bread. If the devil were 
craftily and cautiously educating the Court and 
people to judicial recklessness in taking life, Sarah 
Good was fittingly selected as the first victim. 



WITCH HILL. 81 

The following is the record of her trial made by 
Cheever. That made by Judge Hathorne does not 
differ in any facts. 

u ' Sarah Good, what evil spirit have you famil- 
iarity with ? ' 

" ' None.' 

" 'Have you made no contracts with the devil?' 

"'No.' 

" ' Why do you hurt these children ? ' 

u c I do not hurt them. I scorn it.' 

" ' Who do you employ, then, to do it ? ' 

" ' I employ no one.' 

" ' What creature do you employ, then ? ' 

" ' No creature ; but I am falsely accused.' 

"' Why did you go away muttering from Mr. 
Parris' house ? ' 

" ' I did not mutter ; but I thanked him for what 
he gave my child.' 

" ' Have you made no contract with the devil ? ' 

" ' No.' 

"Hathorne desired the children, all of them, to 
look upon her, and see if this were the person that 
hurt them; and so they all did look upon her, and 
said this was one of the persons that did torment 
them. Presently they were all tormented. 

" Hathorne. ' Sarah Good, do you not see now 
what you have done ? Why do you not tell us 
the truth ? Why do you thus torment these poor 
children ? ' 

" ' I do not torment them.' 

" ' Who do you employ, then ? ' 

u ' I employ nobody. I scorn it.' 



82 WITCH HILL. 

" ' How came they thus tormented ? ' 

" ' What do I know ? You bring others here, 
and now you charge me with it.' 

" ' Why, who was it ? ' 

" 6 1 do not know ; but it was some you brought 
into the meeting-house with you.' 

« < yf e brought you into the meeting-house.' 

" ' But you brought in two more.' 

" ' Who was it, then, that tormented the chil- 
dren ? ' 

" ' It was Osburn.' 

" ' What is it you say when you go muttering 
away from persons' houses ? ' 

" ' If I must tell you I will tell.' 

" ' Do tell us, then.' 

" 'If I must tell I will" tell ; it is the command- 
ments. I may say my commandments, I hope.' 

" - What commandment is it ? ' 

" ' If I must tell you, I will tell you ; it is a 
psalm.' 

"'What psalm?' 

" After a long time she muttered over some part 
of a psalm. 

" ' Who do you serve ? ' 

" ' I serve God.' 

" ' What God do you serve ? ' 

" 'The God that made heaven and earth.' (Though 
she was not willing to mention the word ' God.') 

"Her answers were in a wicked, spiteful man- 
ner, reflecting and retorting against the authority 
with base and abusive words ; and many lies she 
was taken in. It was here said that her husband 



WITCH HILL. 83 

had said that he was afraid that she either was a 
witch or would be one very quickly. The wor- 
shipful Mr. Hathorne asked him his reason why 
he said so of her, whether he had ever seen any 
thing by her. He answered, c No, not in this na- 
ture, but it was her bad carriage to him; and 
indeed,' said he, ' I may say with tears that she is an 
enemy to all good.' " 

Sarah Good was now removed from the meeting- 
house, and Sarah Osburn brought in. Osburn had 
been left a widow with two children by the death 
of her first husband, Robert Prince. Prince was 
a man of good family and considerable property, 
and left his wife and their children a farm, on which 
they lived. The widow, after a while, married her 
Irish laborer, Alexander Osburn. They were both, 
soon after, received into the Church ; but for some 
reason she became the subject of scandal, became 
depressed, and for a long time previous to her 
arrest had been confined to her bed. The follow- 
ing is from Cheever's records of the trial : 

" ' What evil spirit have you familiarity with ? ' 

" ' None.' 

" ' Have you made no contract with the devil ? ' 

" ' No ; I never saw the devil in my life.' 

" ' Why do you hurt these children ? ' 

" £ I do not hurt them.' 

" c Who do you employ, then, to hurt them ? ' 

" ' I employ nobody.' 

" ' What familiarity have you with Sarah Good ? ' 

" ' None ; I have not seen her these two years.' 

" ' Where did you see her, then ? ' 

6 



84 WITCH HILL. 

" £ One day agoing to town.' 

ct 'What communications had you with her V 

" c I had none, only " How do you do," or so. I 
do not know her by name.' 

" ' What did you call her, then ? ' 

" (Osburn made a stand at that ; at last said she 
called her Sarah.) 

" ' Sarah Good saith that it was you that hurt the 
children.' 

" ' I do not know that the devil goes about in my 
likeness to do any hurt.' 

" Mr. Hathorne desired the children to stand up, 
and look upon her and see if they did know her, 
which they all did ; and every one of them said 
that this was one of the women that did afflict 
them, and that they had constantly seen her in the 
very habit she was now in. Three evidences de- 
clared that she said this morning that she was 
more like to be bewitched than that she was a 
witch. Mr. Hathorne asked her what made her 
say so. She answered that she was frighted one 
time in her sleep, and either saw or dreamed that 
she saw a thing like an Indian, all black, which 
did pinch her in the neck, and pulled her by the 
back part of her head to the door of the house. 

" ' Did you never see any thing else ? ' 

" ' No.' 

" (It was said by some in the meeting-house that 
she tad said that she would never believe that 
lying spirit any more.) 

"'What lying spirit is this? Hath the devil 
ever deceived you and been false to you ? ' 



WITCH HILL. 85 

" ' I do not know the devil. I never did see 
him.' 

" i What lying spirit was it, then ? ' 

" ' It was a voice that I thought I heard.' 

" i What did it propound to you ? ' 

" ' That I should go no more to meeting ; but I 
said I would, and did go the next Sabbath-day.' 

" ' Were you never tempted further ? ' 

" ' No.' 

" ' Why did you yield thus far to the devil as 
never to go to meeting since ? ' 

" ' Alas, I have been sick and not able to go.' 

" Her husband and others said that she had not 
been at meeting three years and two months. 

Sarah Osburn was removed from the meeting- 
house, and the Indian slave Tituba took the stand. 
We shall see that she proved more yielding to the 
management of the court. 

" t Tituba, what evil spirit have you familiarity 
with ? ' 

"'None.' 

" ' Why do you hurt these children ? ' 

" 'I do not hurt them.' 

" ' Who is it, then ? ' 

" i The devil for aught I know.' 

" c Did you never see the devil ? ' 

" ' The devil came to me and bid me serve him.' 

" ' Who have you seen ? ' 

" c Four women sometimes hurt the children.' 

" ' Who were they ? ' 

" ' Goody Osburn and Sarah. Good, and I don't 
know who the others were. Sarah Good and Os- 



U i 

a i 



86 WITCH HILL. 

burn would have me hurt the children, but I would 
not.' 

" (She further said there was a tall man of Bos- 
ton that she did see.) 

" ' When did you see them ? ' 

" ' Last night, at Boston.' 

What did they say to you ? ' 
They said, " Hurt the children." ' 

" ' And did you hurt them ? ' 

"'No ; there is four women and one man ; they 
hurt the children, and then they lay all upon me ; 
and they tell me if I will not hurt the children 
they will hurt me.' 

" ' But did you hurt them ? ' 

" ' Yes, but will hurt them no more.' 

" ' Are you not sorry you hurt them ? ' 

"'Yes.' 

" ' And why, then, do you hurt them ? ' 

" ' They say, " Hurt children or we will do worse 
to you."' 

" ' What have you seen ? ' 

" ' A man come to me and say, " Serve me." ' 

"'What service?' 

" ' Hurt the children ; and last night there was 
an appearance which said, " Kill the children," and 
if I would not go on hurting the children they 
would do worse to me.' 

" ' What is the appearance you see ? ' 

" ' Sometimes it is like a hog, and sometimes like 
a great dog.' 

" (This appearance she saith she did see four 
times.) 



WITCH HILL. 87 

" ' What did it say to you ? ' 

" ' The black dog said, " Serve me." But I said, 
" I am afraid." He said if I did not he would do 
worse to me.' 

" 'What did you say to it? 5 

" ' I will serve you no longer. Then he said he 
would hurt me, and he looks like a man and threat- 
ens to hurt me.' (She said that this man had a 
yellow-bird that kept with him.) ' And he told 
me he had more pretty things that he would give 
me if I would serve him.' 

« t What were these pretty things ? ' 

"'He did not show me them.' 

" ' What else have you seen ? ' 

" ' Two cats : a red cat and a black cat.' 

" ' What did they say to you ? ' 

"'They said, "Serve me.'" 

" i What service ? ' 

" ' She said, " Hurt the children." ' 

"'Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this 
morning ? ' 

" ' The man brought her to me and made me 
pinch her.' 

" ' Why did you go to Thos. Putnam's last night 
and hurt his child ? ' 

" ' They pull and haul me and make me go.' 

" ' And what would they have you do ? ' 

" ' Kill her with a knife.' 

" (Lieutenant Fuller and others said at this time, 
when the child saw these persons and was tor- 
mented by them, that she did complain that they 
would have her cut her head off with a knife.) 



88 WITCH HILL. 

" ' How did you go ? ' 

" ' We did ride upon sticks and are there pres- 
ently.' 

" 'Do you go through the trees or over them? ' 
4 " We see nothing, but are there presently.' 
" ' Why did you not tell your master ? ' 
" ' I was afraid ; they said they would cut off my 
head if I told.' 

" ' What attendants hath Sarah Good ? ' 
" 'A yellow-bird ; and she would have given me 
one.' 

" ' What did she give it ? ' 
" ' It did suck her between her fingers.' 
" 6 Did you not hurt Mr. Curren's child ? ' 
" l Goody Osburn and Goody Good told that they 
did hurt Mr. Curren's child, and would have had 
me hurt him too, but I did not.' 
" ' What hath Sarah Osburn ? ' 
" ' Yesterday she had a thing with a head like a 
woman, with two legs and wings.' 

" (Abigail Williams, that lives with her uncle, 
Mr. Parris, said that she did see the same creature, 
and it turned into the shape of Goody Osburn.) 
" 6 What else have you seen with Osburn ? ' 
" ' Another thing, hairy ; it goes upright like a 
man, it hath only two legs.' 

" 'Did you not see Sarah Good upon Elizabeth 
Hubbard last Saturday ? ' 

" ' I did see her set a wolf upon her to afflict her.' 
" (The persons with this maid did say that 
she did complain of a wolf. She further said 
that she saw a cat with Good at another time.) 



WITCH HILL. 89 

" c What clothes does the man go in ? ' 

" ' He goes in black clothes ; a tall man with 
white hair, I think.' 

" c How doth the woman go ? ' 

"'Ina white hood, and a black hood with a top- 
knot.' 

" ' Do you see who it is that torments these chil- 
dren now?' 

" 'Yes ; it is Goody Good. She hurts them in 
her own shape.' 

" ' Who is it that hurts them now ? ' 

" ' I am blind now ; I cannot see.' " 

These examinations were repeated for several 
days, Good and Osburn steadily denying, and the 
Indian slave confessing what the judges term " the 
matter-of-fact." Each night the prisoners were 
sent to Ipswich jail, a distance of ten miles, and 
brought back in the morning. Osburn, in feeble 
health, well-nigh sunk under it ; but Good retained 
her nimbleness of foot and tongue, leaping occa- 
sionally from her horse, and railing on the magis- 
trates in good set terms. A more pious person 
might have been tempted to do so. On the seventh 
day the trial closed, and the three accused were 
sent to the Boston jail, and secured by special bars 
and fetters, as was deemed necessary, with a witch, 
in order to make confinement sure. 

Tituba deserved some consideration at the hands 
of the judges, if the depositions of Samuel Parris, 
Thomas Putnam, and E. Cheever were true. They 
deposed that the poor girls were all set upon by 
the three accused during their examination. But 



90 WITCH HILL. 

when Tituba began to confess her shape ceased 
to torment, and she was herself tortured " before 
authority," in the very presence of the Judge, 
by some unseen agent of the cheated adversary. 

Tituba lay in jail a year and a month, and was 
sold to pay the jail fees. Sarah Osburn remained 
in confinement nine weeks and two days, when 
death kindly released her. 

We shall meet Sarah Good again. 




CHAPTER IX. 

IT is plain, from the records presented ki Ihe pre- 
vious chapter, that the Court and the mass of the 
people were in sympathy with the accusers. The 
Court showed this by the importance it attached 
to their testimony ; the people, by their wondering 
attention in the crowded church, and the occa- 
sional volunteering of a testimony from their midst 
against the prisoners. Popular feeling, that august 
personage who is supposed to judge righteously, but 
is often sadly at fault, joined with the accusers. It 
was evident then, that if the Great Accuser was 
chief manager of this whole affair, he would deem it 
quite a safe stroke of policy to strike at higher 
game. A bed-ridden woman who could endure 
only nine weeks of imprisonment, and who could 
not wait to be hanged, but then died, a wretched 
beggar, and an ignorant slave, would answer as 
the first victims, but would not be worthy of the 
further progress of the grand tragedy. 

Martha Corey next appears on the stage. We 
have introduced to the reader both Martha and 
her more distinguished husband in our chapter of 
"Portraits." Mrs. Corey seems to have been a 



92 WITCH HILL. 

woman of strong sense, a fair measure of intelli- 
gence, and genuine Christian experience. She 
turned away from the witchcraft proceedings from 
the beginning, doubting, at least, its claims to be- 
lief, and disapproving the trials. Her husband, 
on the other hand, was carried away with the cur- 
rent delusion. She is said to have hid his saddle, 
to prevent his attendance with the amazed crowd 
at the meeting-house. Longfellow beautifully pic- 
tures this incident : 

Corey. Ho! Martha! Martha! 

Have you seen my saddle ? 
Martha. I saw it yesterday. 
Corey. Where did you see it? 
Martha. On a gray mare that somebody was riding 

Along the village road. 
Corey. Who was it ? Tell me. 

Martha. Some one who should have stayed at home. 
Corey, {restraining himself,) I see ! 

Don't vex me, Martha. Tell me where it is. 
Martha. I've hidden it away. 
Corey. Go fetch it me. 
Martha. Go find it. 
Corey. No. I'll ride down to the village 

Bareback; and when the people stare and say, 

"Giles Corey, where's your saddle?" I will answer, 

" A witch has stolen it." How shall you like that? 
Martha. I shall not like it. 
Corey. Then go letch the saddle. (Exit Martha ) 
Martha. (Returning.) There ! There's the saddle. 
Corey. Take it up. 
Martha. I wont. 
Corey. Then let it lie there. I'll ride to the village 

And say you are a witch. 
Martha. No, not that. Giles. (She takes up the saddle.) 



WITCH HILL. 93 

Corey. Now come with me and saddle the gray mare 
With your own hands, and you shall see me ride 
Along the village road as is becoming 
Giles Corey of the Salem Farms, your husband. 

Giles Corey and wife had other small jars, which, 
not being strange nor important, would not have 
crept into history if they had not been dragged 
into Court. Somehow the old man's deposition 
was obtained concerning some matters which were 
supposed to bear against his wife, implying some 
witchcraft on her part. How " far-fetched " they 
were the reader will see. It is to this effect : One 
Saturday night, in attempting "duty" — a term by 
which family prayer was expressed — he had no 
liberty — could not utter his desires with any 
sense. His wife perceiving this drew near to him, 
after which, " in a little space," he did " according 
to his measure attend the duty." Giles also de- 
posed that at one time one of his oxen lay down, 
and when he attempted to rise was as if "hip 
shot," but was soon all right. At another time 
his cat was taken suddenly and seriously ill, and 
his wife advised him to knock her in the head; 
but the cat recovered without the application of 
that remedy. The deposition closes with this seri- 
ous allegation : 

" My wife hath been wont to sit up after I went 
to bed, and I have perceived her to kneel down on 
the hearth, as if she were at prayer, but I heard 
nothing." 

It will be remembered that Giles was an old 
man when he professed to be changed by grace 



94 WITCH HILL. 

and joined the Church. Before this he was a man 
of the world. This suggests the difficulty he had 
in praying, and is truthfully rendered by Long- 
fellow : 

Coeey. I will not make believe ! I say to-night 
There's something thwarts me when I wish to pray, 
And thrusts into my mind, instead of prayers, 
Hate and revenge, and things that are not prayers ; 
Something of my old self— my old, bad life — 
And the old Adam in me rises up 
And will not let me pray. I am afraid 
The devil hinders me. You know I say 
Just what I think, and nothing more nor less, 
And when I pray my heart is in my prayer; 
I cannot say one thing and mean another. 
If I can't pray I will not make believe. 

Whisperings against Mrs. Corey as a witch be- 
ing current, two prominent members of the Church, 
Edward Putnam and Ezekiel Cheever, proposed 
to visit her regarding the matter, which certainly 
was a becoming and Christian course; but they 
first visited Thomas Putnam's to consult his ac- 
cusing, specter-seeing daughter, Ann, which did 
not appear so proper or Christian. Ann, as she 
affirmed, and as the committee were evidently in- 
clined to believe, had been awfully tortured by 
Martha Corey, though her bodily presence was 
known not to have been near her. The committee 
inquired of Ann a description of the dress in 
which Mrs. Corey came to her. Ann replied 
that Goody Corey knew that they were about to 
make this visit, and had just appeared to her and 



WITCH HILL. 95 

blinded her, so that she could not see what clothes 
she woie. 

The brethren visited Sister Corey and found her 
alone. She told them that she knew the occasion 
of their call, but said she was not a witch, and 
could not help people's talk. They told her that 
"the afflicted person" accused her. "Does she 
tell what clothes I have on ?" inquired Mrs. Corey 
eagerly. When the visitors gave Ann's reasons 
for not knowing in what dress she came she 
smiled, and intimated that Ann had " showed them 
a pretty trick." They discoursed solemnly about 
the great wickedness of witchcraft, and were 
shocked at her indifference. She even intimated 
that she did not believe there were any witches. 

Upon the whole the brethren were not favorably 
impressed with the evidence of the sister's inno- 
cence. Two days after this interview Martha 
Corey was brought to the house of Thomas Put- 
nam, and at the sight of her Ann was shockingly 
handled. This was decisive, and the accused was 
arrested and brought before "authority." Her 
examination took place in the village meeting- 
house, March 21. Rev. Nicholas Noyes from the 
town opened the session with prayer, and Mr. 
Parris acted as scribe. The records exhibit the 
same method of examination as before on the part 
of the Court, but a harder subject to deal with, be- 
cause more capable of answering for herself. The 
accused had, as did the others, many to cross-ex- 
amine her, but none to cross question her accusers. 

Me. Hathoene. " You are now in the hands of 



96 WITCH HILL. 

authority. Tell me, now, why you hurt these 
persons." 

" I do not." 

" Who doth?" 

" Pray give me leave to go to prayer." 

This request was made sundry times. 

"We do not send for you to prayer; but tell 
me why you hurt these ? " 

"I am an innocent person; I never had to do 
with witchcraft since I was born. I am a gospel 
woman." 

"Do not you see these complain of you?" 

" The Lord open the eyes of the magistrates and 
ministers; the Lord show his power to discover 
the guilty ! " 

"Tell us who hurts these children?" 

" I do not know." 

" If you be guilty of this fact do you think you 
can hide it ? " 

" The Lord knows." 

"Well, tell us what you know of this mat- 
ter." 

" Why, I am a gospel woman, and do you think 
I can have to do with witchcraft too ?" 

"How could you tell, then, that the child was 
bid to observe what clothes you wore when some 
came to speak with you?" 

Cheever interrupted her and bid her not begin 
with a lie; and so Edward Putnam declared the 
matter. 

Mr. Hathorne. " Who told you that ? " 

" He said the child said — " 



WITCH HILL. 97 

Cheever. " You speak falsely." 

Then Edward Putnam read again. 

It will be remembered that Cheever and Put- 
nam, who thus interrupt Corey and give her the 
lie, were the committee who visited her. 

Mr. Hathorne. " Why did you ask if the child 
told what clothes you wore ? " 

" My husband told me the others told." 

" Who told you about the clothes ? Why did 
you ask that question ? " 

" Because I heard the children told what clothes 
the others wore." 

"Goodman Corey, did you tell her?" 

The old man denied that he told her so. 

" Did you not say your husband told you so ? " 

No answer. 

" Who hurts these children ? Now look upon 
them?" 

" I cannot help it." 

"Did you not say you would tell the truth why 
you asked that question ? how came you to the 
knowledge ? " 

" I did but ask." 

".You dare thus to lie in all this assembly. You 
are now before authority. I expect the truth ; you 
promised it. Speak, now, and tell who told you 
what clothes ? " 

"Nobody." 

"How came you to know that the children 
would be examined what clothes you wore ? " 

"Because I thought the child was wiser than 
any body if she knew." 



98 WITCH HILL. 

" Give me an answer ; you said your husband 
told you." 

" He told me the children said I afflicted them." 

"How do you know what they came for? 
answer me this truly ; will you say how you came 
to know what they came for ? " 

" I had heard speech that the children said I 
troubled them, and I thought they might come to 
examine." 

" But how did you know it ? " 

" I thought they did." 

" Did not you say you would tell the truth ? who 
told you what they came for ? " 

" Nobody." 

" How did you know ? " 

"I did think so." 

" But you said you knew so." 

Children. " There is a man whispering in her 



ear." 



Hathorne continued: "What did he say to 
you?" 

" We must not believe all that these distracted 
children say." 

" Cannot you tell what that man whispered ? " 

" I saw nobody." 

" But did not you hear ? " 

" No." 

Here was extreme agony of all the afflicted. 

" If you expect mercy from God you must look 
for it in God's way, by confession. Do you think 
to find mercy by aggravating your sins ? " 

" A true thing." 



WITCH HILL. 99 

" Look for it, then, in God's way." 

" So I do." 

" Give glory to God and confess, then ? " 

" But I cannot confess." 

" Do not you see how these afflicted do charge 
you ? " 

" We must not believe distracted persons." 

" Did not you say our eyes were blinded ; you 
would open them ? " 

" Yes, to accuse the innocent." 

" Why cannot the girl stand before you ? " 

" I do not know." 

" What do you mean by that ? " 

" I saw them fall down." 

a It seems to be an insulting speech, as if they 
could not stand before you ? " 

" They cannot stand before others." 

" But you said they cannot stand before you. 
Tell me what was that turning upon the spit by 
you ? " 

" You believe the children that are distracted. I 
saw no spit. . . . What can I do ? Many rise up 
against me." 

u Why, confess." 

"So I would if I were guilty." 

There was much more of this kind of examination, 
if such it could be called, when the prisoner's guilt 
was assumed and her words perverted into evi- 
dence against her. The Judge returned with 
warmth again and again to the tender point where 
she said she would open the magistrates and min- 
isters' eyes. The children occasionally interposed 

1 



100 WITCH HILL. 

by declaring they saw "the yellow-bird," and then 
the " man whispering in her ear," varied by shrieks, 
from the suffering Corey inflicted. Rev. Mr. Noyes 
put in his word, saying, " I believe it is apparent 
she practices witchcraft in the congregation. There 
is no need of images." 

While the Judge, " the afflicted girls," and the 
volunteers from the audience, were doing their 
part to prove to Martha Corey her witchcraft, (it 
was from the first plain to them,) the committee 
by whom she had been visited, Edward Putnam 
and Ezekiel Cheever, with the aid of the Secretary, 
Rev. Samuel Parris, were doing service in the same 
direction by obtaining evidence of her guilt from 
her lips, fingers, hands, feet, and breast. The 
criminality of her eyes in knocking down the chil- 
dren had been seen, as it was believed, by all. These 
men solemnly deposed that while upon her exam- 
ination they " did see " her bite the children by 
biting her own lips ; that wicked trick being dis- 
covered and stopped, they saw her pinch them by 
nipping her own fingers ; that mischief prevented 
by confining her hands, she afflicted them by work- 
ing her foot ; this restrained, she pressed upon the 
seat with her breast, " and Mistress Pope was 
greatly afflicted by great pressure upon her 
stomach." 

Such persistency in witchcraft in the presence 
" of authority," and the careful observers who tes- 
tified, showed little sagacity on Martha Corey's 
part in self-preservation. 

While thus beset on every hand, there is some- 



WITCH HILL. 101 

thing quite moving in the exclamations forced from 
the oppressed prisoner — u You are all against me 
and I cannot help it ! " " If you will all go hang 
me, how can I help it ! " " What can I do when 
many rise up against me ! " But the bitterest ingre- 
dient in her cup seems to have been the apparent 
sympathy of her husband with her accusers. One 
of his sons-in-law, too, joined in the clamor against 
her. But it will appear in the end that Giles 
Corey was entrapped into this opposition to his 
wife. He redeemed himself subsequently. 

The judges, of course, sent Martha Corey to jail. 
They could not make her see her guilt as they saw 
it. But enough had been done to give fresh cour- 
age to the accusers. The most sacred ties were 
loosening in the society about Salem Village, and 
the Destroyer might strike at still more eminent 
victims. 




^t 



CHAPTER X. 

Stn HxcdUiU jjpatroiu 

T)EBECCA NURSE was the wife of Francis 
-Li Nurse. Her husband will be remembered as 
the owner of the Town send Bishop Farm, and as 
the occupant of its fine mansion. The aged couple 
had secured their homestead by hard work and 
sterling integrity. Their sons and sons-in-law, with 
their wives and children, were settled about them 
— a thrifty, enterprising family, the members of 
which had, by the blessing of God, been the build- 
ers of their own fortunes. The parental home had 
been one of prayer, and the blessing of God lin- 
gered about it, while its influence extended in 
blessings to its children and children's children. 
Mrs. Nurse was of an excellent family, the 
Towns, and her brothers and other relatives had 
settled in and about Topsfield. Her sisters, Mary 
Easty and Sarah Cloyse, will be brought to our 
notice. 

Francis Nurse and wife had, then, worldly sub- 
stance, a wide circle of respected family connections 
and friends ; and they possessed, what was better 
than these, a religious character. They could look 
back upon the past with satisfaction, and forward 



WITCH HILL. 103 

to the future with a hope that their declining sun 
would set without a cloud : 

" How vain are all things here below; 
How false, and yet how fair! " 

Rebecca Nurse was now seventy-one years of 
age, and her husband probably older. The cloud, 
black and driven by a furious tempest, which was 
desolating Salem Village, came rushing down upon 
their quiet mansion. Some faithful friends, per- 
ceiving that it would take that direction, endeav- 
ored to turn it aside. 

The graduates of the circle had muttered, with 
other names, Rebecca Nurse. Why they should 
have turned to so excellent a family, and a woman 
of such eminent repute for piety, can only be sur- 
mised. It was a common notion that the devil 
sought the confederacy of the wisest and best in 
the Church in order thus to do it the more injury, 
and that he bid high for such allies. Some suggest 
that a grudge was felt against them on account 
of their expressed disapproval of the conduct, in 
the church, of the afflicted girls, and that the rela- 
tions of Mrs. Nurse to the " Topsfield men," and 
the complication of her family with the bitter bor- 
der war with that town, afforded the occasion for 
attack. It is not easy to follow the evolutions of 
the witchcraft tempest. 

One of the four friends who attempted to turn 
the storm from Rebecca Nurse was Elizabeth Por- 
ter, sister to John Hathorne, the presiding Judge. 
She with her husband and Peter Cloyse, Mrs. 



10-Jr WITCH HILL. 

Nurse's brother-in-law, and a well-to-do farmer of 
prominence by the name of Anderson, on hearing 
of the girls' whispers against her went to the 
house of Mrs. Nurse. They found her very feeble 
in body, having been sick a week. They inquired 
after her spiritual welfare, and were assured, with 
an exclamation of thanksgiving, that God had 
granted her an unusual measure of his presence 
during her sickness, and that she was c; pressing 
toward the mark." She spoke with tenderness of 
the afflicted girls, especially those of Mr. Parris' 
family, said she was grieved for them, and would 
have called to express her sympathy but for ill 
health, and for fear of fits to which she had been 
subject ; yet " her heart went to God for them." At 
this point the visitors delivered their unpleasant 
message : " We hear that you are named by them 
as a witch." The amazed matron remained for 
some moments silent, confounded, we may well 
suppose, by the announcement. She then meekly 
replied, " Well, if it be so, the will of the Lord be 
done." After another pause she added : " Well, 
as to this thing, I am as innocent as the child un- 
born ; but surely, what sin hath God found out in 
me unrepented of, that he should lay such an 
affliction upon me in my old age." 

The incidents of this interview were drawn out 
into a deposition, signed by the visitors, and pre- 
sented, we suppose, for the consideration of the 
Court. 

But Rebecca Nurse was arrested and brought 
to trial at the meeting-house. The crowd was 



WITCH HILL. 105 

greater and, if possible, more excited than ever. 
Mr. Hale of Beverly opened the Court with prayer. 
At the opening, some of the girls declared that the 
prisoner had never hurt them ; among these was 
Mary Walcot. But soon Mary shouted out that 
Rebecca Nurse was biting her, and the marks of 
her teeth were shown on her wrist. Immediately 
the screeching and noise of the afflicted became 
terrific, so that it was heard by one who " walked 
a little distance from the meeting-house in the 
neighboring field," " so that the whole assembly 
was struck with consternation," " and were afraid 
that those who sat next to them were under 
the influence of witchcraft." It was under such 
circumstances that the trial of the aged invalid 
proceeded. 

Mr. Hathorne. " What do you say," speaking 
to one afflicted, " that this woman has hurt you?" 

" Yes, she hurt me this morning." 

"Abigail, have you been hurt by this woman?" 

"Yes." 

Ann Putnam at this point cried out that she 
hurt her, and the Judge turned to the prisoner and 
said, " Goody Nurse, here are two, Ann Putnam, 
the child, and Abigail Williams, complain of your 
hurting thern, what do you say to it ? " 

"I can say before my Eternal Father I am in- 
nocent, and God will clear my innocency." 

Hathorne was more tender than on the former 
trial, and replied, " Here is never one in the assem- 
bly but desires it ; but if you be guilty, pray God 
to discover you." 



106 WITCH HILL. 

Just then Henry Kenney sprung to his feet in 
the congregation. The magistrate, always ready 
to permit such disorderly testifying, inquired what 
he had to say. He had a complaint against the 
prisoner, for he declared, " since this Nurse entered 
the house I have been seized twice with an amazed 
condition." It is to be hoped that Kenney felt 
better after delivering himself of such a complaint. 

The Judge turned from this volunteer witness to 
the prisoner and declared that, in addition to what 
she had heard, Thomas Putnam's wife accused her 
of cruel treatment, to which Mrs. Nurse replied, 
" I am innocent and clear, and have not been able 
to get out of doors these eight or nine days." 

Hathorne then called upon Edward Putnam, 
who seems to have testified to the sufferings of one 
of the afflicted by the prisoner. 

When he had given "his relate," as the record 
says, the magistrate inquired, " Is this true, Goody 
Nurse?" The answer was prompt, the double 
negative being used for emphasis. 

" I never afflicted no child, no, never in my life." 

" You see these accuse you ; is it true ?" 

"No." 

"Are you an innocent person relating to this 
witchcraft ? " 

At this point Ann Putnam, the mother, put in 
one of her wild exclamations, " Did you not bring 
the Black Man with you? did you not bid me 
tempt God and die ? How oft have you ate and 
drunk your own damnation?" 

The suddenness of this appeal not only appalled 



WITCH HILL. 107 

the congregation, but startled, by its terrific force 
and the solemn nature of its charges, the trembling 
prisoner. She threw up her hands and exclaimed, 
"God help me!" 

Immediately, as persons are simultaneously 
struck by an electric shock, the afflicted were smit- 
ten with agonizing pains. " Do you see," said 
Hathorne, " what a solemn condition these are in ? 
When your hands are loose these persons are 
afflicted." 

Now two more of the circle troop come forward 
with their accusations, and Hathorne demands of 
Nurse what answer she has: "The Lord knows; 
I have not hurt them ; I am an innocent person," 
she steadily replies. 

Hathorne now puts in a solemn appeal : 

"It is very awful for all to see these agonies, 
and you, an old professor, thus charged with con- 
tracting with the devil by the effects of it, and yet 
to see you stand with dry eyes when there are so 
many wet." 

This sounds mean and insulting, to imply her 
indifference because an aged person like her, and 
under such agitation, could not weep. But it must 
be remembered that it was one item of the witch- 
craft theory that a witch could not weep. So the 
Judge was but insinuating her guilt before the 
assembly because of her dry eyes. Her answer 
was to the point, " You do not know my heart." 
And surely he as little knew the heart of her 
accusers. 

The Judge persists, and says, "You would do 



108 WITCH HILL. 

well, if you are guilty, to confess and give glory 
to God." 

"I am as clear as the child unborn," is the 
reply. 

The Judge continues, ''Whatever certainty there 
may be in apparitions I know not, yet this with 
me strikes hard upon you, that you are at this very 
present charged with familiar spirits ; this is your 
bodily person they speak to ; they say now they see 
these familiar spirits come to your bodily person ; 
now what do you say to that ? " 

" I have none." 

After some more questioning of this kind, the 
Judge accuser changes his ground. He bethinks 
him of gossip about her sickness, and inquires, 
" How came you sick, for there is an odd discourse 
of that in the mouths of many?" 

" I am sick at my stomach." 

"Have you no wounds?" 

"I have none but old age." 

The magistrate, in the last question, refers to 
common talk about "witch marks" upon her 
person. 

The girls at this point raise the cry of yellow- 
birds about her head and the black man whisper- 
ing in her ear, and the Judge asks, " What do you 
say to it?" 

" It is false ; I am clear," is the emphatic reply. 

"Possibly," suggests Hathorne, "you may ap- 
prehend you are no witch, but have you not been 
led aside by temptation that way?" 

"I have not." 



WITCH HILL. 109 

The Judge, apparently aside, says, " What a 
sad thing it is that a Church member here, and 
now another of Salem, should be thus accused and 
charged." 

The Judge was startled from this soliloquy by 
Mrs. Pope, who went into a fit and shouted griev- 
ous accusations, followed by a general shriek from 
the circle, and fit prostrations. 

The Judge returns to his insinuations about 
witch marks, and then changes base by asking, 
"Do you think these suffer voluntary or invol- 
untary?" 

" I cannot tell," is the cautious and charitable 
reply. 

" That is strange ; every one can judge." 

"I must be silent," was the reply, which the 
magistrate takes up by remarking : u They accuse 
you of hurting them, and if you think it is not 
unwillingly, but by design, you must look upon 
them as murderers ! " 

"I cannot tell what to think of it," was the 
answer, which does not satisfy Hathorne, and he 
follows it up and finally puts it curtly : " Give an 
answer, now, do you think these suffer against their 
will or not ? " 

The answer was doubtless honest, but not pleas- 
ing : "I do not think these suffer against their 
wills." 

Having received enough on that point, the Judge 
inquires : " Why did you never visit these afflicted 
persons ? " Answer — " Because I was afraid I 
should have fits too." 



110 WITCH HILL. 

Just here the accusers, on the motion of the 
body of the accused, put in evidence many and 
sore fits, and Hathorne exclaims: "Is it not an 
unaccountable case that when you are examined 
these persons are afflicted ? " The answer is touch- 
ingly sad : " I have got nobody to look to but 
God." 

When she moved her hands the girls were tor- 
tured, and Hathorne again demands : " Do you 
believe these afflicted persons are bewitched?" 

" I do think they are." 

Having received this emphatic answer, the Judge 
begins to expostulate : 

" When this witchcraft came upon the stage 
there was no suspicion of Tituba, (Mr. Parris' 
Indian woman ;) she professed much love for that 
child, Betty Parris ; but it was her apparition did 
the mischief, and why should not you also be 
guilty, for your apparition doth hurt also." To 
which Nurse answered : 

"Would you have me belie myself?" 

Mrs. Nurse's head now drooped upon her shoul- 
der, weary and faint no doubt, and immediately 
the afflicted felt their heads cruelly pressed to one 
side. 

" Authority " now called upon Mr. Parris to read 
notes of what he had seen and heard of Thomas 
Putnam's wife while in her convulsive agonies. It 
was the old story of a terrific conflict with Rebecca 
Nurse's specter, in which Mrs. Putnam had received 
the most horrible torturing. 

At the close of the solemn narration the magis- 



WITCH HILL. Ill 

trate turns to the prisoner and says, " What do 
you think of this ? " 

" I cannot help it ; the devil may appear in my 
shape," was the reply. 

A general confusion followed. Nurse held her 
head on one side, and one of the girls, Elizabeth 
Hubbard, "had her neck set in that posture." 
Whereupon Abigail Williams shouted, "Set up 
Goody Nurse's head ! the maid's neck will be 
broke ! " Mrs. Nurse's head was righted, and 
" Aaron Wey said that Betty Hubbard's was im- 
mediately righted." 

The violent shrieks and shouts of the circle com- 
pany, and the talking of many others, all doubt- 
less testifying against the aged matron, made it 
impossible for the scribe to make a full record of 
the proceedings, and he says that, on this account, 
many things were omitted — such omissions being 
quite as well, no doubt, for the credit of the 
Court. 

Though the prisoner was thus surrounded by 
those who assumed her guilt, there was one ingre- 
dient of bitterness, in the cup of sorrow put to 
Martha Corey's lips, which Rebecca Nurse did not 
taste — her family were not against her. They 
were true to her, and to their convictions of her 
innocence. 

The commitment of this excellent person to 
prison after such evidence that she was in confed- 
eracy with the world's great enemy was a matter 
of course. Her limbs were loaded with chains, 
and her person put into the custody of the jailer. 



112 WITCH HILL. 

Rebecca Nurse's trial was followed by that of 
Dorcas Good, a child not five years old. Marshal 
Herrick, a man of commanding presence, seemed 
to think such an arrest beneath his dignity, for she 
was brought in by a deputy. But the marshal, who 
had brought to Court an invalid old lady, a half- 
demented beggar, and an ignorant Indian slave- 
woman, could well have afforded to arrest a little 
girl. 

Dorcas' conduct was certainly very wrong if 
the circle were to be credited ; for they charged her 
with biting, pinching, pricking, and choking them, 
both before and at the trial, they showing the pins 
with which she pricked, and the prints of her teeth 
on their arms. She was sent to prison. 

In the Boston jailer's bill against the Common- 
wealth, left on record, there is a charge of ten shil- 
lings for " two blankets for Sarah Good's child." 
We are glad to add that little Dorcas was not 
hanged. > 




as. 



CHAPTER XL 

THERE was a significant evolution of the witch- 
craft tempest, beginning about the time of the 
trials of which we have thus spoken. Deodat 
Lawson will be remembered as one of the Pastors 
of the Village Church, who had left on the account 
of the parish contentions, and who while with them 
had buried a wife and daughter. He had mar- 
ried again and settled in Scituate. He returned 
to the Village on the 19th of March, the day on 
which Martha Corey was arrested. His coming 
seems to have been in accordance with a pre- 
arrangement, and he became the guest of Deacon 
Ingersoll. On the very day of bis arrival he re- 
ceived a call from Mary Walcot, who aston- 
ished him by being seized and tortured on the spot 
by the witches. But the revelation, that most filled 
him with horror, was her declaration that his wife 
and daughter had been murdered by the wretches 
who were now being brought to justice. He 
probably refers to this testimony, as given after- 
ward in Court, in his statement published at a later 
date, in which he says, speaking of the girls: 
>' They did affirm at the examination, and again at 



114 WITCH HILL. 

the trial of an accused person . . . that they saw 
the ghosts of my wife and daughter, (who died 
above three years before,) and they did affirm that 
when the very ghosts looked on the prisoner at 
the bar they looked red, as if the blood would fly 
out of their faces with indignation." 

With such information weighing upon his mind 
(for he seems to have received it as truth not to 
be called in question) he visits Mr. Parris, whose 
niece is tortured in his presence. The following 
Sunday he preaches with various interruptions 
from the circle. Monday Mrs. Corey is on trial 
in the meeting-house, and he hears the ghostly 
evidence of her guilt. He also sees her smite 
down her accusers with a look, deliver them from 
their fits by a touch, torture them in a variety of 
ways, though not near them, by simply reclining 
her head upon her shoulder, pressing her foot upon 
the floor, squeezing her fingers together, and, 
when these were prevented, pressing her breast 
against a seat. On Wednesday, the day of Re- 
becca Nurse's arrest, his mind is renewedly stimu- 
lated by a visit to Mrs. Ann Putnam. He found 
her bodily condition truly pitiable. At times her 
mouth was drawn up on one side, and her body 
strained, her convulsions lasting half an hour. 
But her mental condition was even worse, from 
violent conflicts with the great Enemy in the spec- 
ter form of a witch. With much effort, and after 
many convulsions, she designated the third chapter 
of Revelation as that which Mr. Lawson should 
read. No sooner was the reading commenced 



WITCH HILL. 115 

than she was well, listening quietly to the Word, 
resting in her husband's arms. 

Thursday morning Mr. Lawson witnessed the 
witchcraft exhibitions at the trial of Rebecca 
Nurse, and then walked the adjacent field in 
solemn meditation, but within the sound of the 
battle that was raging in the meeting-house. It 
was lecture day and he was to preach. The events 
that were transpiring had put the whole country 
astir, and excitement was at fever heat. It was a 
great occasion, requiring great fitness of heart and 
mind, but Mr. Lawson was master of the situation. 
He chose his text from Zechariah iii, 2 : " The Lord 
rebuke thee, O Satan ! even the Lord that hath 
chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee ; is not this a brand 
plucked out of the fire ? " 

He speaks of the great power of Satan over the 
bodies and souls of men, quoting many passages 
of Scripture. He illustrates his position by a refer- 
ence to the afflicted. He says : " And whosoever 
hath observed these things must needs be convinced 
that the motions of the persons afflicted, both as to 
the manner and as to the violence of them, are the 
mere effects of diabolical malice and operations, 
and that it cannot rationally be imagined to pro- 
ceed from any other source." 

He fully indorses the claim which lay at the 
foundation of the witchcraft theory ; he says : "He 
(Satan) contracts and indents with witches and 
wizards, that they shall be the instruments by 
wdiom he may more affect and afflict the bodies 
and minds of others ; and if he can prevail upon 

8 



116 WITCH HILL. 

those who make a visible profession, it may be a 
better covert unto his diabolical enterprise, and 
may the more readily pervert others to consenting 
unto his subjection." 

He modestly puts forth the popular belief that 
witches make witches by inducing their victims 
to sign a book. He says, " So far as we can look 
into those hellish mysteries, and guess at the 
administration of the kingdom of darkness, we 
may learn that witches make witches by persuad- 
ing one the other to subscribe to a book, or 
articles," etc. 

In his application he exhorts his hearers to have 
sympathy with the afflicted, "those poor afflicted 
persons that are, by divine permission, under the 
direful influence of Satan's malice*" He exclaims, 
"O pity, pity them!" 

He makes a solemn and truly eloquent appeal to 
those in the congregation who may have entered 
into the diabolical covenant. At the naming of 
this he exclaims in the language of the prophet, 
" Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be hor- 
ribly afraid ; be ye very desolate, saith the Lord ! " 
He exhorts them to repentance, and warns them 
of the certain and fearful retributions of the judg- 
ment day if they do not. His appeals to Chris- 
tians as to the manner and spirit of their resistance 
to the satanic assaults are truly scriptural, and 
fervently put : " I am this day commanded to call 
and cry an alarm unto you : Arm, arm, arm ! . . . 
let us admit no parley, give no quarter; let none 
of Satan's forces or furies be more vigilant to hurt 



WITCH HILL. 117 

us, than we are to resist and oppress them, in the 
name and by the spirit, grace, and strength of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." He affirms that prayer is the 
great, all-efficient weapon for the emergency, and 
closes an exhortation to this duty thus: "What, 
therefore, I say unto one I say unto all, Pray, 

PRAT, PRAY ! " 

His address to the magistrates who sat before 
him was modest and Christian. He exhorts them 
to " check and rebuke Satan," " by all ways and 
means that are according to the rule of God," re- 
minding them that they "judge not for men but 
God." His deep sympathy in one direction would 
not allow him to close this word to the judges 
without saying, " Be a father to the poor ; to these 
poor afflicted persons, in pitiful and painful en- 
deavor to help them." It would have been well 
if he had added, "Be just to the poor, suffering, 
wronged, and outraged accused persons." But he 
did not see them in this light. 

He appropriately closes the sermon by comfort- 
ing believers with the truth "that the Lord Jesus, 
that captain of our salvation, hath already over- 
come the devil. . . . Hence, if we are by faith 
united to him, his victory is an earnest and preliba- 
tion of our conquest at last." 

The sermon is considerably mixed. It indorses 
the whole witchcraft theory as it lay in the popular 
mind ; it put forth extreme statements of his own 
theological faith on a much controverted doctrine 
of the Christian Church, in a connection which 
seemed to vindicate, as according to the will of 



118 WITCH HILL. 

God, the worst things in this whole history; but 
it taught much wholesome Christian truth in a 
spirit truly that of a man who, though deluded in 
common with the masses about him, had the sav- 
ing grace of God. 

We have examined this sermon with deep in- 
terest, especially that part in which he addresses 
the judges, for some word on the character of these 
spectral testimonies. This was the vital point — 
the true topic of the occasion, in comparison with 
which all others were idle words. He commends 
the judges " to the rule of God" in judging. There 
were a few in the congregation who waited with 
breathless suspense for him to inquire, Is the 
declaration of a specter to be taken as teaching 
God's rules ? If he had attacked specter evidence 
boldly, and with the ability and strength of con- 
viction that pervades the sermon, our history might 
have ended here. But he would have encountered 
the raging storm, instead of being borne along and 
stimulated by it. What his belief was, on that 
point, we can only infer. The following extracts, 
from a preface to an edition of his sermon pub- 
lished by him in London years afterward, may 
enlighten us in this matter, and also show what 
the alleged preternatural facts were, which now 
bewildered and which continued for some months 
to bewilder the people : 

" Some of the afflicted, as they were striving in 
their fits in open court, have (by invisible means) 
had their wrists bound together by a real cord, so 
as it could hardly be taken off without cutting. 



WITCH HILL. 119 

Some afflicted have been found with their arms 
tied, and hanged upon a hook from whence others 
have been forced to take them down, that they 
might not expire in that posture. 

"Some afflicted have been drawn under beds 
and tables by undiscerned force, so they could 
hardly be pulled out ; and one was drawn half-way 
over the side of a well, and was, with much diffi- 
culty, recovered back again. 

" Sometimes, in their fits, they have had their 
tongues drawn out of their mouths to a fearful 
length, their heads turned very much over their 
shoulders; and while they have been so strained 
in their fits, and had their arms, and legs, etc., 
wrested as if they were quite dislocated, the blood 
hath gushed plentifully out of their mouths for a 
considerable time together, which some, that they 
might be satisfied that it was real blood, took upon 
their finger and rubbed on their other hand. I 
saw several together thus violently strained and 
bleeding in their fits. 

" A young woman that was afflicted at a fearful 
rate had a specter appear to her with a white 
sheet wrapped about it, not visible to the standers- 
by until the sufferer (violently striving in her fit) 
snatched at, took hold of, and tore off a corner 
of that sheet. Her father, being by, endeavored 
to lay hold of it with her, that she might retain 
what she had gotten; but, at the passing away 
of the specter, he had such a violent twitch of 
his hand as it would have been torn off; imme- 
diately thereupon appeared in the sufferer's hand 



120 WITCH HILL. 

the corner of a sheet — a real cloth visible to the 
spectators — which (as it is said) remains still to 
be seen." 

Mr. Lawson's sermon was immediately printed, 
indorsed by the Boston ministers, and dedicated 
to the presiding magistrates, and the Pastors of the 
mother Church at Salem. 

The Sabbath following the delivery of this rous- 
ing sermon w T as the regular communion Sabbath. 
Mr. Parris came on with a sermon, following up 
the vigorous blows of Mr. Lawson. Its drift and 
spirit may be judged by its text and title : " Christ 
knows how many devils there are in his Church, 
and who they are." John vi, 70, 71: "Jesus an- 
swered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and 
one of you is a devil ? He spake of Judas Tscariot 
the son of Simon : for he it was that should betray 
him, being one of the twelve." 

Sarah Cloyse, a younger sister of Rebecca Nurse, 
was present with her husband. Her heart was, of 
course, almost crushed by the occurrences of the 
past week, but she had come under much con- 
straint to commune with God's people at his Sup- 
per. The text, and the allusions to the recent 
events, were too much for her. She rose and left 
the meeting, the door slamming after her. It was 
said that a strong wind was blowing at the time, 
and that the slamming was purely accidental. It 
might have been considered diabolical, for it wms a 
missile sent after the burdened woman which was 
barbed with death. 

Such was the maddened state of public feeling 



WITCH HILL. 



121 



around Salem Village about the beginning of 
April, 1692, and such were some of the circum- 
stances which stimulated it. It fully warranted 
the Arch-Manager, and those "possessed" persons 
through whom he wrought, in a change of base, 
which was skillfully effected, and the introduction 
soon after of a new tactic. 




CHAPTER XII. 

9 ^fjiamge of W>u$2, 

ON Monday, April 4, two of the chief men of the 
Village went to Salem and complained of Sarah 
Cloyse and Elizabeth Proctor to the magistrates, 
Hat horn e and Cor win. The ground of complaint 
was, of course, " Sundry acts of witchcraft." On 
Monday, the eleventh, they were brought by the 
marshal, just before noon, to the meeting-house of 
Salem, which was larger than that at the Village, 
and was already crowded with a waiting, excited 
people. The Court was in waiting, not the court 
of two magistrates, as at the Village, but an im- 
posing " Council " composed of the highest digni- 
taries of the colony. The record designates it as 
"a Council held at Salem," composed of "Thomas 
Danforth, Esq., Deputy Governor; James Russell, 
John Hathorne, Isaac Addington, Major Samuel 
Appleton, Captain Samuel Sew all, and Jonathan 
Corwin, Esquires." 

Here were the Lieutenant Governor, Danforth, 
as Chief-justice, and six "assistants" — two from 
Boston, one from Charlestown, one from Ipswich, 
and two of Salem — representatives of the highest 
judiciary of the Commonwealth. From such a 
base the witchcraft operations took a wider range, 



WITCH HILL. 123 

and censed to be a Salem Villasre affair. It was 
like Grant abarrlonins: bis intrenchments at Arlino-- 
ton Heights, and spreading his forces about Rich- 
mond. The heart of the colony was advantageously 
attacked. To assemble this Council for merely 
commitment trials was curious and significant. 
When the persons who were " committed " by this 
Court were tried for their lives it was before a 
subordinate one, reversing the order of usage and 
equity. But our whole history is curious and 
significant. 

The Governor at this time was Simon Brad- 
street, now eighty-seven years old, yet clear in 
intellect and sound at heart, a great and good man. 
On account of his great age, Danforth was acting 
Governor. This was unfortunate, for Danforth 
was an early and warm abettor of the delusion, 
(though he lived to see and confess his error,) while 
Bradstreet disapproved it throughout. 

The Council being ready, in its impressive dig- 
nity, the audience on tip-toe of expectation, the 
amazed prisoners, Mrs. Cloyse and Mrs. Proctor, 
at the bar, the examination commenced. The first 
witness well became the character of the prosecu- 
tion. John Indian, Mr. Parris' ignorant slave, 
husband of Tituba, one of the founders and 
instructors of the circle, steps forward. His mas- 
ter, who is scribe of the Council, puts the questions 
in the presence of "Authority." 

" John, who hurt you ? " 

" Goody Proctor first, and then Goody Cloyse." 

"What did she do to you?" 



124 WITCH HILL. 

" She brought the book to me." 
" John, tell the truth ; who hurt you ? Have 
you been hurt ? " 

" The first was a gentlewoman I saw." 
" Who next ? " 
" Goody Cloyse." 
" But who hurt you next ? " 
" Goody Proctor." 
" What did she do to you ? " 
" She choked me and brought the book." 
"How oft did she come to torment you? " 
■ - A good many times ; she and Goody Cloyse." 
"Do they come to you in the night as well as 
in the day ? " 

" They come most in the day." 
"Who?" 

" Goody Cloyse and Goody Proctor." 
" Where did she take hold of you ? " 
"Upon my throat to stop my breath." 
"Do you know Goody Cloyse and Goody Proc- 
tor?" 

" Yes, here is Goody Cloyse." 
At this point Mrs. Cloyse demanded of her ac- 
cuser — with indignation, we may well suppose — 
" When did I hurt thee ? " 

John answered, " A great many times." 
" O, you are a grievous liar ! " she replied, and 
the Council proceeded : " What did this Goody 
Cloyse do to you ? " 

" She pinched and bit me till the blood came." 
" How long since this woman came and hurt 
you?" 



WITCH HILL. 125 

" Yesterday, at meeting." 

" At any time before ? " 

" Yes, a great many times." 

When John Indian left the witness stand two 
of the girls were brought forward in turn. Mary 
Wolcot's testimony was of the customary material, 
alternated with bodily distortions with which she 
was tormented, and out of which she was brought 
by being brought in contact with one of the pris- 
oners. 

The questioner next demanded of Abigail Will- 
iams whether she had seen a company eat and 
drink at Mr. Parris' house? 

" Yes, sir, that was in the sacrament." 

" How many were they there ? " 

"About forty, and Goody Cloyse and Goody 
Good were their deacons." 

" What was it ? " 

" They said it was our blood, and they had it 
twice that day." 

Frequent allusions are made throughout the 
trials to these witch sacraments. Mr. Lawson's 
statement of what he heard in court concerning 
them will make their ch ^racter plainer : 

"Being brought to se^ the prisoners at the bar 
upon their trials, they did affirm in open court (I 
was then present) that they had oftentimes seen 
them at witch meetings, where was feasting, danc- 
ing, and jollity, as also at devil-sacraments; and 

particularly as they saw such a man amongst 

the rest of the cursed crew, and affirmed that he 
did administer the sacrament of Satan to them, 



126 WITCH HILL. 

encouraging them to go on in their way, and they 
should certainly prevail." 

The witches had the sacrament of baptism also 
according to the testimony that Mr. Lawson had 
heard in court : " They affirmed that many of those 
wretched souls had been baptized at Newbury 
Falls, and at several other rivers and ponds ; and, 
as to the manner of administration, the Great Offi- 
cer of hell took them up by the body, and, putting 
their heads into the water, said over them, ' Thou 
art mine ; I have full power over thee.' " 

The Court having obtained Abigail's testimony 
concerning the diabolical sacrament, turned to 
Mary Walcot for a pleasanter kind ; but what it had 
to do with the case in hand it is not easy to see, 
except, it may be, to relieve the general dismal 
story of the witness : 

" Have you seen a white man ? " 

" Yes, sir, a great many times." 

" What sort of a man was he ? " 

"A fine, grave man; and when he came, he 
made all the witches tremble." 

Abigail Williams confirmed the fact concern- 
ing the white man, naming the place where they 
saw him — a very appropriate place — at Deacon 
Ingersoli's. 

Mr. Lawson giyes more details concerning what 
the witnesses said of the white man: "Some of 
them have at sundry times seen a ivhite mem ap- 
pearing among the specters, and as soon as he 
appeared the black witches vanished. They said 
this white man had often foretold them what res- 



WITCH HILL. 127 

pite they should h:ive from their fits, as sometimes 
a day or two or more, which, fell out accordingly. 
One of the afflicted said she saw him, in her fit, 
and was with him in a glorious place which had no 
candle nor sun, yet was full of light and bright- 
ness, where there was a multitude in white, glitter- 
ing robes, and they sang the song in Rev. v, 9 ; 
Psalm ex, cxlix. She was loath to leave that 
place, and said: 'How long shall I stay here? 
Let me be along vrith you,'' She was grieved she 
could stay no longer in that place and company." 

At the close of the testimony concerning the 
white man seen at Deacon Ingersoll's, the Court 
asked, " Who was at Deacon Ingersoll's then ? " 
meaning who of the witches whose presence the 
white man drove away. The answer was : " Goody 
Cloyse, Goody Nurse, Goody Corey, and Goody 
Good." 

Mrs. Cloyse on hearing this asked for water, and 
sat down " as one seized with a dying, fainting fit." 
The girls immediately went into their agonies, 
some of them breaking in upon the tumult with the 
shout : " O, her spirit has gone to prison to her 
sister, Nurse," putting in, for variations, " There is 
the black man whispering in Cloyse's ear!" " There 
is a yellow bird flying round her head!" John 
Indian did the floor-tumbling and rolling about, 
at which he was expert by practice. 

Order being restored, Mrs. Elizabeth Proctor 
was brought forward. Her husband, John Proctor, 
we have introduced to the reader as a straight- 
forward, earnest, honest, plain-spoken man, of true 



128 WITCH HILL. 

courage. From the beginning to the end of his 
wife's wrongs, at the mouths of her accusers 
he was, as far as possible, at her side, to comfort 
and aid her, at the peril of his own life. 

The first three of the circle who were addressed 
by the Court concerning the prisoner were dumb, 
one of them having her fist thrust into her mouth, 
where it would have been well for all of them to 
have kept their fists while in court. But John 
Indian was on his feet again Avith a loosened 
tongue. He declared Goody Proctor hurt him, to 
which she replied : " I take God in heaven to be 
my witness that I know nothing of it, no more 
than the child unborn." Then the girls' tongues 
were set at liberty and they cried against her, con- 
firming their testimony with fits. 

Abigail Williams, turning to Mrs. Proctor, said : 

c Did you not tell me your maid had written ? " 

to which Proctor mildly replied, " Dear child, 

it is not so. There is another judgment, dear 

child." 

But kindness was lost upon the " dear child," for 
she went into a fit, and, coming out of it, joined 
with Ann Putnam in shouting, " Look you ! there 
is Goody Proctor upon the beam." Whether the 
indignant husband, who was at his wife's side, 
gave the girls at this point " a piece of his mind," 
which was known to have a sharp edge and to cut 
deep, we do not know. It would have been like 
him. But the records say that they cried out 
against him, saying he was a wizard, which they 
proved by their fits, rendered on the spot. They 



WITCH HILL. 129 

shouted also, " There is Proctor going to take up 
Mrs. Pope's feet," and the record adds, " Her feet 
were immediately taken up," which proved, we 
suppose, the truth of the accusation. John Proc- 
tor when appealed to declared, of course, that he 
" knew nothing of it," that he was " innocent." 

A circumstance of an original character occurred 
at Elizabeth Proctor's trial : " Abigail Williams 
and Ann Putnam both made offer to strike at said 
Proctor; but when Abigail's hand came near it 
opened, whereas it was made up into a fist before, 
and came down exceeding lightly as it drew near 
to said Proctor, and, at length, with open and ex- 
tended fingers touched Proctor's hood very lightly. 
Immediately Abigail cried out, ' My fingers ! my 
fingers ! my fingers burn,' and Ann Putnam took 
on most grievously of her head and sunk down." 

Judge Sewall wrote in his Journal, " It was aw- 
ful to see how the afflicted girls were agitated," add- 
ing in the margin afterward, regretfully, " Vce" 
thrice repeated — u Alas, alas, alas !" 

The tragic scene closed by the commitment of 
Sarah Cloyse and John Proctor and wife to Boston 
jail. The accused had gained nothing by the 
change of base, but, as was intended by the man- 
ager, "the possessed" stood on higher ground, 
where they could better survey the field of battle, 
and command its forces. This position secured 
and held, they fell back upon Salem Village to put 
into operation a new strategy. 

On the 19th of April Giles Corey and Mary 
Warren of Salem Farms, Abigail Hobbs of Tops- 



180 WITCH HILL. 

field, and Bridget Bishop of Salem, were brought 
by the marshal to the house of Deacon Ingersoll 
under arrest "for high suspicion of witchcraft." 
The reader will recognize Corey and Mrs. Bishop 
as old acquaintances. Mary Warren, the servant 
girl of John Proctor, has thus far accompanied us 
as one of the "circle" experts, and a most relent- 
less accuser. How came she under arrest, and 
what "is in the wind," when "the afflicted" are 
turning witches ? 

Mary had begun to see other visions than those 
in which specters flit; the sight of real girls — 
afflicted ones — dissembling, as she affirmed. She 
was reported as saying that, " The magistrates 
might as well examine Keyser's daughter, that has 
been distracted many years, and take notice of 
what she says, as well as any of the afflicted per- 
sons. For," she added, " when I was afflicted I 
thought I saw the apparitions of a hundred per- 
sons, for my head was turned and I could not tell 
what I said." And she further declared that since 
she had recovered she could not say that she saw 
any of the apparitions " at the time aforesaid." 

No sooner had Mary begun to see this kind of 
vision, than her old circle companions began to 
see her in apparition afflicting them. She ap- 
peared in court as a prisoner, and it was rendered 
unto her as she had rendered unto others. Her 
guilt was demonstrated by * ghostly sights and 
frightful convulsions on the part of the circle. 
This point reached, she returns into her old habit 
of falling into fits, and while site-lay in one the 



WITCH HILL. 131 

circle cried out that she was going to confess. 
But forthwith they see Goody Corey, Proctor and 
wife, with spectral audacity, step in and strike her 
back to the floor as she attempts to rise and con- 
fess. Now conies Mary's heroic struggle, she 
rising up and exclaiming, " I will speak ! 0,1 am 
sorry for it ! I am sorry for it ! " wringing her 
hands, moving to tears, no doubt, the amazed be- 
holders, as they see her smitten to the floor again. 
On making another effort to speak, her teeth are 
set and she is convulsed. Presently she moans, 
" O Lord, help me ! O good Lord, save me !" 

She cries again, " I will tell, I will tell ! " suc- 
ceeded by fits ; and then again, " I will tell, I will 
tell ; they brought me to it." After this she is for 
some time overcome, and has to be carried out of 
court. When brought back and examined before 
the magistrates and ministers only, she was able 
to say, "She said, 'I shall not speak a word.' But 
I will, I will speak, Satan ! She saith she will kill 
me. O, she saith she owes me a spite, and will 
claw me off. Avoid, Satan ! for the name of God, 
avoid ! Will ye ? I will prevent ye in the name 
of God." 

She was afterward several times examined in 
prison, the Enemy, as it was believed, interrupting 
her efforts to break her covenant with him, and 
thus the struggle went on until the middle of May, 
when Mary Warren succeeded in freeing her mind, 
making a full confession of all the particulars of 
her terrible fall, her dark conspiracy against Christ 
and his kingdom with the Prince of Darkness, 

9 



132 WITCH HILL. 

and her hard-fought battles and her hair-breadth 
escape. She was soon set at liberty by authority, 
and henceforth Mary Warren is seven-fold more 
"possessed" and an accuser than before. The 
records will bring her forth as a principal witness 
against at least ten persons, all of whom were 
committed, and seven died by the hand of the 
executioner. 




CHAPTER XIII, 



THE arrest of Giles Corey might have been ex- 
pected. He was made of such material, and 
had lived such a life, especially through his earlier 
years, as to afford occasion to the circle to accuse 
him of witchcraft. Besides, though at first giving 
testimony which was used against his wife, he 
had, on mature reflection, and on seeing her alarm- 
ing situation, fallen back to her side. Now that 
he stands before authority in the meeting-house at 
Salem Village, the object of wonder, if not of in- 
dignation, from a gazing crowd ; of bitter accusa- 
tions which he knows to be false ; and of assumed 
guilt on the part of an overbearing Court, he is 
self-possessed and deeply solemn. The current 
declaration of the accused came with emphasis 
from his lips: "I know nothing of it; I am inno- 
cent." The circle performed against him with un- 
abated vigor, notwithstanding the defection of one 
of their number. They received the usual number 
of pinches, strangulations, threats, and seduce- 
ments, from the accused. His feet, hands, eyes, 
head, and looks, inflicted the customary tortures 
upon the girls, in the very face of the people and 
their "worships," the magistrates. At one time 



134 WITCH HILL. 

his audacity in this direction was more than the 
meekness of the judge could endure, and he ex- 
claimed, 

"What! is it not enough to act witchcraft at 
other times, but must you do it now in the face 
of authority ? " 

Corey calmly replied, "I am a poor creature, 
and cannot help it." 

But the motion of his head at the same instant 
tortured the heads and necks of the girls, and the 
magistrate broke forth in wrath again, " Why do 
you tell such lies against witnesses?" 

The accusers tried to make a point of the dis- 
agreement of Corey and his wife. But he insisted 
that they had no contention except on a matter 
of opinion. He had in his family devotions used 
the phrase, " dying to sin and living to God." She 
thought it improper language ; he contended that 
it was all right. 

A less serious accusation urged against him was 
this : he said that he had seen the devil in the shape 
of a black hog, and was very much frightened. 

" What did you see in the cow-house ? Why do 
you deny it?" demands the judge. 

"I saw nothing but my cattle," replies the 
prisoner. 

The accusers urge the point renewedly, and the 
judge inquires, "What was it frightened you?" 

The insinuation of cowardice stung the old man, 
and he replies, " I do not know that I ever spoke 
the word in my life." 

Giles Corey being clearly entitled to commit- 



WITCH HILL. 135 

ment, in the opinion of the Court, another equally 
original character is brought forward — Bridget 
Bishop. The reader will recollect her in our "por- 
traits of notable persons." Her " shovel-board," 
peculiar dress, unguarded speech, and resolute, if 
not at times severe temper, gave her a notoriety 
not altogether creditable. Yet no serious accusa- 
tion had been proved against her. From the 
charge of witchcraft previously brought against 
her it will be recollected that she had been ac- 
quitted. But she is not likely to fare so well now. 
On her introduction to the Court she is met by the 
decisive testimony of the convulsions of the girls. 
Hathorne thus addresses her: "Bridget Bishop, 
you are now brought before authority to give 
account of what witchcraft you are conversant 
with?" 

She turned away from the judge, and, looking 
upon the listening assembly, answered, " I take all 
this people to witness that I am clear." 

Hathorne inquires of the accusing girls if she 
had hurt them. He then says to the prisoner, 
" You are here accused by four or five for hurting 
them. What do you say to it ? " 

"I never saw these persons before, nor T never 
was in this place before." 

Mary Walcot steps forward with a special kind 
of proof of Bridget Bishop's guilt. She declares 
that her brother Jonathan had attacked Bridget's 
"appearance," and "tore her coat" in the conflict. 
Mary "heard it tear," so the point was clear to 
her mind. The prisoner, fortunately, had the iden- 



136 WITCH HILL. 

tical coat on, and the Court, with gravity, no 
doubt, and becoming caution in reference to such 
evidence, ordered it to be examined on the spot, 
and, "upon some search a rent that seems to an- 
swer what was alleged was found." 

The Court returns to the examination: "They 
say you bewitched your first husband to death." 

"If it please your worship, I know nothing 
of it." 

Mrs. Bishop shakes her head and the afflicted 
are shaken ; again, she nods and they are tortured. 

One testifies at this point that she said that she 
had been accounted a witch for ten years, but that 
she was no witch; and that the devil could not 
hurt her. 

"I am no witch," interposes Bridget. 

"Why, if you have not wrote in the book, tell 
me," says Hathorne, " how far you have gone." 

"I have no familiarity with the devil." 

"How is it then that your appearance doth hurt 
these?" 

" I am innocent." 

" Why, you seem to act witchcraft before us by 
the motion of your body, which seems to have in- 
fluence upon the afflicted." 

"I am innocent. I know not what a witch is." 

This last expression the Judge seizes, and at- 
tempts to confound the prisoner with it: "How 
do you know then that you are not a witch ?" 

" I do not know what you say." 

" How can you know you are not a witch, and 
yet not know what a witch is ?" 



WITCH HILL. 137 

" I am clear ; if I were such a person you should 
know it." 

The girls repeated the charge of murder against 
the prisoner, and Hathorne asks : " What do you 
say of those murders you are charged with ? " 

"I hope I am not guilty of murder." 

Every one about Bridget seems to have inter- 
posed with confounding questions; Marshal Her- 
rick put in his word, and the girls theirs, and 
Hathorne demanded if she could not find it in her 
heart to tell the truth. When he asked her if she 
had not heard that some had confessed, she an- 
swered, " No ; " immediately two men stepped for- 
ward and declared they told her some had confessed. 
She simply answered, "I did not hear you." But 
the records say, " Here she is taken in a plain lie." 
Every thing is made to tell against the prisoner, 
and as the officers carry her away to prison the 
circle confirm the whole by great agonies. 

It will be noticed that accusations of witchcraft 
were often fastened upon several members of the 
same family. Husbands and wives, parents and 
children, were overwhelmed together. This became 
especially painful when one member of a family 
turned accuser of other members. 

William Hobbs, an early settler in the extreme 
northern portion of the Village territory, was a 
marked victim in this respect. He was now fifty 
years of age, having felled the forest, toiled on the 
recovered land, built him a home, and seen his 
children arrive at mature age. His life had been 
without reproach, so far as is known, and his sun, 



138 WITCH HILL. 

having passed its meridian, promised to set upon 
his well-earned forest home with golden rays. 
But clouds of inky blackness suddenly shut it 
from sight. 

His daughter Abigail had for some time seemed 
deranged, wandering in the woods by night, and 
leading an aimless life. Persons testified that she 
had boasted that she was not afraid of any thing; 
that she had sold herself, soul and body, " to the 
Old Boy;" that she did not care what any body 
said to her, for she had seen the devil and made a 
covenant or bargain with him. 

After Abigail's arrest, and she had been put face to 
face with " their worships," in Salem prison, April 
20, she declared to them that an old acquaintance, 
named Judah White, had appeared to her in ap- 
parition, with Sarah Good, advising her to fly and 
not go to examination; that if she did go to ex- 
amination not to confess. This Judah White was 
dressed " in fine clothes, in a sad-colored silk man- 
tle, with a top-knot and hood ; " that the devil, in 
the shape of a man, came to her, and would have 
her afflict the children ; and brought their images 
in wood, and gave her thorns with which to prick 
these images, which, when she had done, Ann 
Putnam and her circle friends were pricked, and 
cried out for pain. She further enlightened the 
magistrates concerning a diabolical sacrament, at- 
tended by all the witches, in Mr. Parris' pasture, 
when she eat the "red bread and drank the red 
wine." 

On the credit of this confession, Abigail became 



WITCH HILL. 139 

a capital witness, and her perverse tongue was 
used against persons of unblemished character, 
among whom were lier parents. 

Mrs. Deliverance Hobbs, mother of Abigail, 
when placed before " authority," declared her in- 
nocence, deplored the sad condition of her daugh- 
ter, and vainly hoped to be believed. But her 
daughter and the circle poured upon her de- 
fenceless head their unanswerable proof of guilt, 
supported by the sympathy of the Court and gap- 
ing crowd, the most of whom frowned upon the 
trembling prisoner. Abigail Williams and Mary 
Walcot declared that she "bit Mary's foot," and 
forthwith fell into a fit ; John Indian said she had 
choked him. The magistrate assumes the truth 
of testimony from such high authority and de- 
mands, " Why do you hurt these persons ?" "How 
come you to commit acts of witchcraft ?" "Is it 
you or your appearance? how comes this about?" 
and the very pertinent question for a prisoner to 
answer: "Who hurts them if you do not?" To 
all Mrs. Hobbs answers steadily for awhile, "I 
know nothing of it;" "I have not consented to it 
that they should be hurt ; no, in the sight of God 
and man, as I shall answer another day." 

The witnesses persisted in their accusations, the 
Court in its assumptions, the crowd in its frowns ; 
they all held out, but Mrs. Hobbs' strength of body 
and mind did not. She exclaimed, as Hathorne 
pressed his leading questions, "I am amazed." 
Henceforth she answered as her prosecutors — her 
persecutors — wished. She was a confessing witch, 



140 WITCH HILL. 

and another weapon had been wrenched from un- 
willing hands with which to smite down other 
victims. 

Under such circumstances was William Hobbs, 
the husband and father, brought before the judges. 
The girls declared he had hurt them. Goody 
Bibber's accusing tongue stumbled, and she said, 
"He has not hurt me." Hobbs was appealed to, 
and he answered solemnly, "I can speak in the 
presence of God safely, as I may look to give ac- 
count another day, that I am clear as a new-born 
babe." 

The circle declared that he was even then going 
to this and that one, and torturing them, and Ha- 
thorne demands, "How can you be clear?" in view 
of what the children " saw." Then they fell into 
a fit and " hallooed." 

Gossip is admitted to Court, and the Judge asks 
the prisoner when he was at any religious meeting. 

" Not a pretty while." 

"Why so?" 

" Because I was not well. I had a distemper 
that none knows." 

The Judge demands, " Can you act witchcraft 
here, and, by casting your eyes, turn folks into 
fits ? " 

"You may judge your pleasure. My soul is 
clear." 

" Do you not see you hurt them by your look ? " 

" No, I do not know it." 

"You did not answer to that question; don't 
vou overlook them ? " 



WITCH HILL. 141 

" No, I don't overlook them." 

" What do you call that way of looking upon 
persons and striking them down ? " 

" You may judge your pleasure." 

" Well, but what do you call it ? " 

"It was none of I." 

Then comes the ever ready, impertinent question 
of the Court, " Who was it then ? " to which 
Hobbs gives the pertinent reply, " I cannot tell 
who they are." The Judge further urges against 
him what the circle " see " and feel of his hurtings, 
and demands, " Can you deny it ? " to which the 
prisoner steadily answers, " I can deny it to my 
dying day." 

The Judge then accuses him of going away 
when the Bible is read in his family. He flatly 
denies it. Good Deacon Ingersoll and Thomas 
Haynes come forward with a second-hand testi- 
mony, and say that Hobbs' daughter Abigail told 
them so. Thus new cords are added to the meshes 
that are being woven about William Hobbs, in 
bringing his family testimony against him, the 
testimony of a distracted, vagrant daughter, and 
an overawed and confounded wife. The Court 
pressed the advantage thus gained, and reminded 
him that the girls ceased to be afflicted by his wife 
and daughter when they began to confess. 

" I am not guilty," is the justly defiant answer. 
The Judge, evidently piqued at his firmness, insults 
him by a perverted use of a sufficiently explained 
fact of his non-attendance for " a pretty while " 
upon religious service ; at the same time charging 



142 WITCH HILL. 

his denial of guilt to the devil's influence over him. 
" If you put away God's ordinances from you, no 
wonder that the devil prevails with you to keep 
his counsel." He pushes for awhile the matter of 
the worship of God, without tripping the prisoner. 
He then comes back to his daughter. " Have you 
not known a good while that your daughter was a 
witch?" 

" No sir." 

"Do you think she is a witch now?" 

" I do not know." 

Failing in this, as in other demands, to extort 
any thing like a committal of the prisoner against 
himself, Hathorne resorts to a demand of the pris- 
oner to explain the afflictions of the children. 
With unfaltering self-possession he answers that 
he does not know what ails them. 

When it is remembered that William Hobbs 
had brought against him the confessions of his 
w T ife and daughter, and that the browbeating of 
the Court had not been exceeded in any other case, 
it will be allowed that he passed the examination 
with great excellence of temper, and a firmness 
of mind that could not well have been excelled. 
There was onlv "witchcraft evidence" against 
him, but with Hathorne that was good evidence, 
and Hobbs was sent to jail. 

Mary Easty was sister to Rebecca Nurse and 
Sarah Oloyse — three excellent women, as we have 
stated, belonging to good families. Alary Easty 
was fifty-eight years old, and had seven children ; 
her husband, I: aac Easty, owned and lived upon 



WITCH HILL. 143 

a large, well developed estate, and their religious 
and social relations were among the most favored 
as well as honorable. Her arrest, trial and commit- 
ment to prison have nothing peculiar in them to 
distinguish her case from that of others that have 
been given, except that she suffered with, and on 
account of, her loved sisters. She affirmed calmly 
and firmly her innocence, was browbeaten by the 
Court, (though much less than was William Hobbs,) 
was cried out against by the girls after this fash- 
ion : " O Goody Easty, O Goody Easty, you are 
the woman, you are the woman ! " and was proved 
guilty of witchcraft by witchcraft evidence only. 

The arrest, trial and commitment of Mary Black, 
an ignorant, negro slave of the Tituba type, shows 
that "the possessed" did not yet despise small 
game, though they shot at shining marks. 

Philip English (arrested under a warrant ob- 
tained by Captain Jonathan Walcot, Mary's father, 
and Sergeant Thomas Putnam, the father of Ann) 
was a higher prize. He was one of the first "mer- 
chant princes " of the Massachusetts colony. He 
owned fourteen buildings in the town, a wharf, 
and twenty-one vessels. His business was extensive, 
and his social position of the very first class. His 
mansion in Salem, standing in the memory of many 
living, was spacious, constructed with taste, and 
charmingly located on the sea-shore. Jealousy of 
his affluence, and resentment on account of some 
lawsuits in which he had been engaged, are the 
surmised occasions of the accusations against him 
of witchcraft. His wife, also reputed of eminent 



144 WITCH HILL. 

character and culture, shared his arrest. Bentley 
says : " From the indulgence of her education she 
was not condescending to all the poor around her, 
and from them the accusations came. The officer 
came to her house in the evening of the 21st of 
April, 1692. The officer had been admitted by 
the servant, and read his warrant in her bed- 
chamber, but she refused to rise. Guards were 
placed around the house. In the morning she at- 
tended to the devotions of her family, kissed her 
children with great composure, proposed her plan 
of their education, took leave of them, and then 
told the officer she was ready to die. She was 
examined, and committed, by indulgence, to cus- 
tody in a public house at which her husband visited 
her." The visits of Mr. English to his wife occa- 
sioned jealousy, of course, since accused members 
of families less wealthy, but not less innocent, were 
suffering in uncomfortable cells. In consequence, 
they were sent together to the "Arnold jail in 
Boston." There are no records of the trial which 
preceded their commitment. But the rich have 
friends. Two ministers of the First Church in 
Boston interposed their good offices in their be- 
half, and they escaped from jail. They immediately 
went to New York, carrying recommendations to 
the hospitality of the Governor, and there they 
remained until the collapse of the witchcraft fur or, 
when they returned to their home in Salem. We 
have no such pleasant finale to relate of any others 
who were tried and committed for witchcraft. 
Mrs. Susanna Martin, a widow of Amesbury, 



WITCH HILL. 145 

was examined at the village meeting-house, May 2. 
She was a woman of an original character, and her 
trial has marked peculiarities. IShe is described as 
" a short, active woman, wearing a hood and scarf, 
plump and well-developed in her figure, and of 
remarkable personal beauty." 

One accusation against her is singular. A woman 
of Newbury deposed that she walked from Ames- 
bury to her house one " very dirty season," when 
the traveling was not fit for any one to be abroad. 
"When she entered the room the children were bid 
make way for her to come to the fire to dry her- 
self. Martin replied, "I am dry as you are." Her 
friend expressed a surprise that she did not seem 
to have wet the soles of her shoes. She cast aside 
her coat, and exclaimed, " I scorn to have a drab- 
bled dress." 

Mrs. Martin had fallen upon evil times indeed, 
when tidiness was made a presumption of witch- 
craft. 

When before authority, this energetic woman 
showed that her scorn was not confined to a drab- 
bled skirt. The accusing party presented their 
convulsions against her, Ann Putnam in a fit threw 
her glove at her, and " the examinant " laughed. 

" Why do you laugh ? " demands authority. 

" Well I may at such folly." 

" Is this folly, the hurt of these persons ? " 

" I never hurt man, woman, or child." 

Mercy Lewis shouted that she hurt her and pulled 
her down, at which Martin laughs again. Others 
join in the outcry against her, and the Judge asks, 



146 WITCH HILL. 

" What do you say to this ?" 

" I have no hand in witchcraft." 

"What ails this people?" 

" I do not know." 

"But what do you think?" 

" I do not desire to spend my judgment upon it." 

" Do not you think they are bewitched ? " 

" No, I do not think they are." 

" Tell me your thoughts about them." 

" Why, my thoughts are my own when they are 
in ; but when they are out they are another's." 

"You said their master. Who do you think is 
their master?" 

" If they be dealing in the black art, you may 
know as well as I." 

" Well, what have you done toward this ?" 

" Nothing." 

" Why, it is you or your appearance." 

"I cannot help it." 

" How comes your appearance just now to hurt 
these." 

"How do I know?" 

"Are not you willing to tell the truth?" 

"I cannot tell; he that appeared in Samuel's 
shape, a glorified saint, can appear in any one's 
shape." 

"Do you believe these do not say true?" 

" They may lie, for aught I know." 

"May not you lie?" 

"I dare not tell a lie, though it may save my 
life." 

" Then you will speak the truth ? " 



WITCH HILL. 147 

" I have spoken nothing else. I would do them 
any good." 

Hathorne retorts that she had just insinuated 
that the children had the devil for their master, 
and he did not think therefore that she had great 
affection for them. 

The marshal, who was standing by her, puts in a 
word, and the circle shout that they see her upon 
the beam. The Court and people no doubt gaze 
in vain in the direction toward which they point. 
Amid the hubbub the magistrate remarks solemn- 
ly, "Pray God discover you if you be guilty;" to 
which Mrs. Martin responds, " Amen ! amen ! A 
false tongue will never make a guilty person." 

Mercy Lewis said tauntingly to the prisoner, 
" You have been a long time coming to the court 
to-day. You can come fast enough in the night." 

"No, sweetheart," said Mrs. Martin, and then 
the circle performed generally. John Indian did 
the ground tumbling as he cried out, " She bites ! 
she bites!" It was observed that at the same 
time Martin was biting her lips. 

"Have you not compassion for these afflicted?" 
inquired Hathorne. 

" No, I have none." 

Several cried out just here that they saw the 
Black Man with her. The circle made an at- 
tempt to approach Mrs. Martin, but were not able. 
John Indian was plucky in the matter, and stalked 
toward her shouting, "I'll kill her." But he was 
flung to the floor before he reached her. Hathorne, 
as usual, holds the prisoner responsible for an ex- 

10 



148 WITCH HILL. 

planation of these amazing phenomena, and de- 
mands why it is they cannot come near her. She 
answers, " I cannot tell. It may be the devil bears 
me more malice than another." 

"Do you not see God is discovering you?" tri- 
umphantly exclaims Hathorne. 

Nothing daunted, Martin replies, " No, not a bit 
for that." 

" All the congregation think so." 

" Let them think what they will." 

"What is the reason these cannot come near 
you?" 

"I do not know but they can if they will; or 
else, if you please, I will come to them." 

The circle cry out that the Black Man is whis- 
pering in her ear, and Hathorne inquires what he 
says. She answers, "There was no one whispered 
to me." The words of the prisoner were " fiercer" 
than those of the Judge, but with the Court there 
was power, and she was consigned to prison. 

The circle had grown bolder and keener in their 
manner of accusing, and they were now prepared 
to strike even " a reverend Elder." 




CHAPTER XIV. 

OX the evening of April 20, 1692, Ann Putnam 
had most fearful revelations and tortures at 
her home, in the presence of her father, Sergeant 
Thomas Putnam. The specter of a minister ap- 
peared to her, at which she was terribly affrighted. 
Dark insinuations had been made before by the 
circle of a man dressed in black at Casco, and 
other places in Maine had been referred to. Now 
the sea-coast of that far-off region sends fearful 
ghosts. Ann cries, " O, dreadful ! dreadful ! here 
is a minister come ! What ! are ministers witches 
too? Whence came you. and what is your name? 
for I will complain of you, though you be a min- 
ister, if you be a wizard." 

Then the specter offers the book, and tells Ann 
to write in it, to which she replies, "I will not, 
though you tear me to pieces." She immediately 
receives awful tortures and packings. But she per- 
sists in her refusal, and preaches the recreant min- 
ister a sermon: "Is it not dreadful that you, a 
minister, who should teach children the fear of 
the Lord, should come to persuade poor souls to 
give their souls to the devil!" She then breaks 
out into vehement expostulation : u O, dreadful ! 



150 WITCH HILL. 

dreadful ! tell me your name that I may know who 
you are ?" After more tortures the specter tells his 
name — the Rev. George Burroughs. The reader 
will recognize it as that of the pastor of Sakm Vil- 
lage who fared so hard at the hands of the parish, 
especially at the hands of Lieutenant John Putnam. 
He had been for some years pursuing his quiet 
course as the laborious, self-sacrificing pastor of a 
small flock in Maine. Now, if Ann's witchcraft 
testimony is reliable, he has come to the village to 
ruin innocent children. He is a stupid wizard, if 
any at all, for he not only tells his name while on 
his diabolical errand, but assures Ann that he be- 
witched his two first wives to death, and that he 
murdered Mrs. Law r son and her child, put troops 
of soldiers to death in Maine, and made Abigail 
Hobbs and other village people witches. 

Ann's sufferings during this fight with Burroughs 
were immense. Her father sat down the next day 
and wrote to their worships, John Hathorne and 
Jonathan Corwin, then at Salem, stating nothing 
definitely, but, after thanking them for their great 
and good work in the Village thus far, hinting at 
things " high and dreadful, a wheel within a wheel, 
at which our ears do tingle." This hint, he says, 
is to prepare them to be still further " a terror to 
evil doers and a praise to them that do well." 

On the day this note was written, at eleven 
o'clock A. M., Benjamin Hutchinson and Abigail 
Williams were concerned in " an amazing " occur- 
rence. They met in the road. Abigail told Ben- 
jamin that she had seen "a little black minister" 



WITCH HILL. 151 

who lived in Casco, Maine, and went on otherwise 
to describe Mr. Burroughs. She said he was a 
wizard, and told stories of his wonderful feats of 
strength. "Why," exclaimed Abigail, "there he 
is now ! " 

"Where?" inquires Benjamin in amazement. 
" Why, there," pointing to a rut of a cart wheel in 
the road. Benjamin had an iron fork in his hand, 
and he valiantly attacked the specter, though he 
saw nothing. The girl went into a fit, exclaiming, 
" You have torn his coat, for I heard it tear." 

" Whereabouts ? " shouted Benjamin. " On one 
side," is the reply. 

The parties now go into Deacon Ingersoll's great 
room. The girl shouts again, " There he stands ! " 
"Where? where?" cries Benjamin, drawing his 
rapier. 

" He is gone, but there is a gray cat !" 

"Whereabouts?" 

" There ! there ! " pointing at the place. Ben- 
jamin struck at and killed the cat on the spot. 
To be sure, he did not see any thing; but Abigail 
assured him it was so, and that Sarah Good car- 
ried away the dead cat. 

The same day after lecture these two persons, 
with Mary Walcot and Eleazer Putnam, were in 
Deacon Ingersoll's chamber. The deacon's latch- 
string was always out. The girls said that the 
room was full of witches in their apparitions. The 
young men made fight with their rapiers, and 
killed " a great black woman of Stonington and an 
Indian who came with her." 



152 WITCH HILL. 

The blood streamed upon the floor, invisible of 
course to the valiant knights of the rapier. The 
girls rushed to a window, declaring that they saw 
a great company of witches on a hill, and that 
three of them lay dead there — the two slaughtered 
in the room and another whom they did not 
know. 

Sergeant Putnam and others, under oath, made 
due report to the Court of the Rev. Mr. Burroughs' 
treatment of his daughter, testifying in full to her 
"hellish temptations and loud outcries;" and the 
other weighty matters we have just related were 
faithfully brought to the official notice of their 
worships. 

But the conduct of Mr. Burroughs received 
further exposure. The visions of Ann Putnam 
were growing sublimely awful. The bolts which 
she launched at the head of the little dark-com- 
plexioned minister of Casco, were like fiery flashes 
from a black, sulphurous cloud. Her truly devout 
uncle, Deacon Edward Putnam, and her father, 
testify to the following facts as seen and felt by 
her in their presence, a little later than those al- 
ready related : George Burroughs came and urged 
her to write in his book, which was refused. He 
then told her that his two deceased wives would 
soon come to her with their tongues full of lies 
which she should not believe. The two women 
did then immediately appear in winding-sheets 
and napkins about their heads. They turned their 
faces toward Burroughs, looking red and angry, 
charging him with cruelty, and declaring that 



WITCH HILL. 153 

their blood cried for vengeance against him. They 
further declared to him that they should be clothed 
with white robes in heaven, while he should be 
cast into hell. At this fearful denunciation Bur- 
roughs vanished. The murdered women then 
turned toward Ann, "looking as pale as a white 
wall." They then told her they were Burroughs' 
wives whom he had murdered, one of them re- 
moving her winding-sheet and showing where he 
had stabbed her to death under the left arm, cover- 
ing the wound with sealing-wax. This, she said, 
was done in the Village parsonage. The other 
testified that she had been killed by Burroughs, 
assisted by his present wife, " because they would 
have each other." They charged Ann to tell these 
things in Court to Burroughs' face, threatening to 
appear there themselves if he did not own them. 

These retiring, the Rev. Deodat Lawson's wife 
and daughter came, charging their death upon the 
same reverend Elder, followed by Goodman Fuller's 
wife, with a like charge in reference to herself. 

From the point of view of the people of Salem 
Village, and of the magistrates, the guilt of the 
Elder was immense. People held their breath in 
consternation. The authorities were alert. The 
foe must be taken by surprise, or he would escape 
into the forest which surrounded his far-off home. 
Nothing must be done in Salem or the alarm 
would reach him. Some one slipped off to Boston, 
a warrant was obtained from a magistrate of that 
place and sent to the sheriff of the district in which 
the little minister lived. Strange that one who 



154 WITCH HILL. 

visited the Village so audaciously should have 
known its secrets so little ! Field-marshal Partridge 
of Portsmouth surprised him in the midst of his 
family at his frugal meal; so says tradition. Up 
to this time the good man had known nothing of 
the crimes charged against him. Humbly, peace- 
fully shepherding his flock in the wilderness, he 
little thought to see the fierce lions into whose jaws 
he so suddenly fell. Tradition further says that 
he was roughly hurried away without a moment's 
farewell parting or conference with his family. 
But we need not believe more against the author- 
ities than the records declare. The warrant was 
dated in Boston, April 30; Partridge delivered 
Burroughs to the Salem jailer, May 4. The dis- 
tance from Salem was one hundred miles. The 
journey was made, no doubt, on horseback, and 
over the rough roads of a new country. There 
was the caution and fiery energy, in the arrest, of 
an attack by the same men on a camp of Indian 
foes. And, in fact, they sincerely believed that a 
foe, more to be dreaded than savages, and more to 
be hated than French or Dutch, was combining 
his forces against Salem, and that George Bur- 
roughs was confederate with him. 

As the fall of a minister into this great sin was 
one of the things "great and high, at which the 
ears did tingle" — "a wheel within a wheel" — his 
trial required a Court of special dignity. The Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, William Stoughton, and Samuel 
Sewall, came to Salem and sat on the bench with 
Hathorne and Corwin ; Stoughton presided. 



WITCH HILL. 155 

Burroughs was first brought before the ministry 
and judges only. They inquired concerning his 
partaking of the Lord's Supper, he being a mem- 
ber of the Church in Roxbury, and asked whether 
his children had been baptized. He acknowledged 
not having received the Supper at all times when 
he might, and that only his eldest child was bap- 
tized. What this had to do with the crime for 
which he was indicted we cannot see, except the 
inquiring parties considered, the neglect of any 
Christian d uty the sin of vi itchcraft ; if so, the sin 
of witchcraft has continued to be prevalent unto 
this day. 

When brought to the room of public examina- 
tion the prisoner "knocked down" the members 
of the circle, who were now behind him, and tor- 
tured them generally; not, of course, touching 
them, he being guarded, if not strongly chained. 
Susanna Shelden testified to a visit from the pris- 
oner's two deceased wives, who appeared to her as 
to Ann Putnam in their winding-sheets, accusing 
their husband of murdering them. On hearing 
this dreadful charge the cries, agonies, and tum- 
blings of the whole company of the afflicted were 
so great, so protracted, and so deeply afflicting to 
the Court and people, that they were removed for 
awhile from the room. The prisoner was then 
asked what he thought of these things. He meek- 
ly replied, " It is an amazing and humbling provi- 
dence, but I understand nothing of it." 

In the absence of the girls, evidence was pre- 
sented that Mr. Burroughs had exercised, as it 



156 WITCH HILL. 

was alleged, supernatural strength. As it ha£ 
been stated, he was a short man, but seems to 
have had a compact, strong physical frame, sys- 
tematically developed by gymnastic exercise while 
a student in Cambridge College, and made power- 
ful by a frontier life. Some of the things said to 
be done by him he denied, and qualified the state- 
ments concerning others. 

When the accused and accusers were again face 
to face, Mary Warren came forward w T ith another 
kind of proof of his wizard character. She swore 
that Mr. Burroughs had a trumpet which he blew 
to summon the witches to their convocations. Its 
notes called them to the diabolical sacraments in 
Mr. Parris' orchard near the parsonage. Its capacity 
was truly wonderful, or witch ears were amazing 
quick to take in far distant sounds, for its blasts 
reached every forest and sea-girt settlement. 

The "confessing" Abigail Hobbs added her 
echo of what others had said of him — that he was 
a conspicuous figure at the witch meetings near 
Mr. Parris' house. 

In these testimonies of the girls against the pris- 
oner they suffered much at his hands, or, rather, 
at the hands of his "appearance," in chokings and 
strangulations. 

We will follow him to his lonely cell with our 
sympathy until we meet him again, when our 
deeper sympathy will be awakened. 



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CHAPTER XV. 

VE have introduced among our portraits George 
Jacobs, Sen., an old man with white, thin 
hair flowing: down his neck and shoulders. A tall 
man, making a commanding figure in the days of 
Ins vigorous manhood, he now bends upon two 
crutches. Though infirm in body, we shall see 
that he has no craven spirit. He could meet a 
sharp accusation with a square answer. He was 
not afraid of the face of authority, and he laughed 
at the witchcraft evidence brought against him. 
Vain levity, though prompted by assured inno- 
cence before ludicrous accusations ! 

The Court commences the examination with the 
statement: "Here are them which accuse you of 
acts of witchcraft." 

" Well, let us hear who are they, and what are 
they." 

Abigail Williams comes forward with testimony 
after the circle fashion. The old man laughs. 
Turning to the Court to excuse his levity, he says, 
"Because I am falsely accused. Tour worships, 
all of you, do you think this is true ?" 

" Nay, what do you think?" demands the Court. 

" I never did it." 



160 WITCH HILL. 

The old, profound, confounding question is 
ever upon the lips of the magistrate : " Who did 
it?" 

" Don't ask me," is the pertinent answer, though 
his worship seems to think it impertinent, for he 
replies, "Why should we not ask you? Sarah 
Churchill accuseth you. There she is." 

Sarah Churchill was a servant-girl, living in 
the family of Jacobs. We shall have occasion to 
note the drift of her testimony. It breathes a vin- 
dictive spirit. 

Jacobs replies to Sarah's accusations, " I am as 
innocent as the child born to-night." He thinks 
to make a presumption of innocence out of a life 
of integrity, and adds an appeal to the Court, "I 
have lived thirty-three years here in Salem." 

"What then?" replies the Court. 

"If you can prove that I am guilty I will lie 
under it," persists the prisoner. 

Here Sarah Churchill puts in the assertion that 
he came with two crutches to Deacon Ingersoll's 
the previous evening and afflicted her. 

"Pray, do not accuse me. I am as clear as 
your worships. You must do right judgment." 

Seeming not to hear this solemn appeal, the 
magistrate turns to the servant-girl and demands, 
"What book did he bring you, Sarah?" 

" The same that the other women brought." 

" The devil can go in any shape," interposes the 
old man. 

"Did he not appear on the other side of the 
river and hurt you? did not you see him?" are 



WITCH HILL. 161 

the leading questions of the Court. " Yes, he did," 
is the accommodating reply. 

The Judge turns with an air of triumph to the 
prisoner and says, " Look, then ; she accuseth you 
to your face. She chargeth you that you hurt her 
twice." 

"It is not true. What would you have me say? 
I never wronged no man in w^ord nor deed." 

"Here are three evidences." 

"You tax me for a wizard. You may as well 
tax me for a buzzard. I have done no harm." 

His worship assumes the point in question, which 
is never any question with him, and says, "Is it 
no harm to afflict these?" 

" I never did it," is the prompt denial. 

"But how comes it to be your appearance?" 

"The devil can take any likeness." 

The reader will note the answer of the Court, as 
it affirms the doctrine of the magistrates, as prac- 
tically maintained throughout the trial, as distin- 
guished from those of the ministers, as we shall 
have occasion more fully to understand — "Not 
without their consent." That is, the specter of a 
person assumed by the devil was, by this doctrine, 
a proof of the person's confederacy with him. 

Jacobs replies, "Please your worship, it is un- 
true. I never showed the book. I am silly about 
these things as the child born last night." 

The magistrates seem suddenly to call to mind 
the remark of Jacobs at the commencement of the 
examination, in which he says, " I have lived thirty- 
three years in Salem," implying a challenge to find 



162 WITCH HILL. 



a stain upon his character. His honor replies, 
" That is your saying. You argue you have lived 
so long. But what then ? Cain might have lived 
long before he killed Abel; and you might have 
lived long before the devil had so prevailed on 
you." 

Sarah Churchill interposes, sayings " I know you 
have lived a wicked life." 

" Let her make it out," replies her master. 

"Doth he pray in his family?" inquires the 
Court. 

" ISTot unless by himself." 

" Why do you not pray in your family ? " 

" I cannot read." 

" Well, but you may pray for all that. Can you 
say the Lord's Prayer ? Let us hear you." 

It will be borne in mind that it was alleged in 
the witchcraft doctrine that a witch could not re- 
peat the Lord's Prayer correctly. So they were 
put to this test in their examinations. In this case, 
say the records, c He could not repeat it right after 
many trials." 

The Judge asks Sarah Churchill if she was 
not frightened when the likeness of her master 
came to her. She answers, " Yes." 

The prisoner seeing that every thing with which 
he was accused was assumed as true, exclaims reso- 
lutely, " Well, burn me or hang me ! I will stand 
in the truth of Christ. I know nothing of it." 

The magistrate inquires, "Do you know nothing 
of getting your son George and his daughter Mar- 
garet to sign ? " 



WITCH HILL. 163 

" No, nothing at all." 

At the second examination of George Jacobs a 
day later, namely, May 11, the circle were exceed- 
ingly clamorous. Mary Walcot affirmed that he 
came and beat her with one of his crutches " to 
make her sign." Ann Putnam declared that he 
had told her that he had been a witch forty years. 
Of course she meant that his "appearance" told 
her so. This same wicked appearance stuck pins 
into the hands of Ann Putnam and Abigail 
Williams. 

John Doitch, a boy sixteen years of age, appears 
on the stage only at this time. He came forward 
as one deeply afflicted by " old Jacobs " and 
others. His accusation is a very curious one. He 
says that " John Small and his wife Anne, both 
deceased and formerly of the town of Salem, did 
both appear to this deponent, and told him that 
they w T ould tear him to pieces if he did not go and 
declare unto Mr. Hathorne that George Jacobs 
did kill them." 

We presume, though the records are silent, that 
George Jacobs made answ T er to this impeachment, 
" I never did it." But as his specter was believed 
to have done the mischief, his answer availed noth- 
ing. Certainly his " appearance" should have been 
arrested, if any one ; but the Court sent the veri- 
table George Jacobs, Sen., to jail, to await, in irons, 
his trial. 

The examination above narrated took place in 
the house of Thomas Beadle in Salem. Like 
Deacon Ingersoll at the Village, he kept an inn. 



164 WITCH HILL. 

Why the Church was not used does not appear. 
It seems to show an abatement of popular feeling, 
but the subsequent trials do not sustain this view. 
Perhaps no special interest w r as felt in the plain 
old man. 

His grand-daughter, Margaret, was examined 
and committed at the same time. There is no ac- 
count of her trial, but we shall meet her on an- 
other occasion. 

A few days after the trial of Margaret a warrant 
was taken out against her father, George Jacobs, 
Jun., and his friend and neighbor, Daniel Andrew. 
Andrew had been representative to the General 
Court, and a teacher of his neighbor's children in 
the essential branches of education in the absence 
of a regular teacher. He was a man of wealth, 
education, and piety. Jacobs, Jun., and Andrew, 
seeing that to be accused was to be judged guilty 
and imprisoned, and probably, in the final result, 
hanged, hastily left the Village, and escaped across 
the sea. A hard necessity, but wisely improved. 

Rebecca Jacobs, wife of George Jacobs, Jun., 
was a truly unfortunate woman. She had been, 
for twelve years, known as one partially bereft of 
reason. But none were too high nor too low for 
the shafts of the "possessed" girls. They had 
caused the imprisonment of her daughter and 
father-in-law, and had driven her husband sud- 
denly to a foreign land, without time to provide 
for the comfort or even the necessities of his family. 
The constable now came for her. She became 
desperate and showed fight. But she yielded on 



WITCH HILL. 165 

a promise of speedy release, which promise was 
not kept. Four children, one of them an infant, 
were left in her truly desolate home. Those who 
were old enough to walk followed their mother, 
crying and vainly endeavoring to overtake the 
officer. Compassion had not all failed for the 
families of the accused, and the neighbors took the 
little ones to their homes. The mother was com- 
mitted to jail. Few families felt the desolating 
storm of witchcraft more than the Jacobs family. 

11 








CHAPTER XVI. 

ffi inciting, list |ai 

BRAY WILKINS was a yeoman of the olden 
time and of the purest type. He lived at 
" Will's Hill," on the boundary line between Read- 
ing and Salem, about five miles from the Village. 
He was an old man in 1692. He had owned a 
lordly extent of land, on which were located his 
own farm and those of his children. His present 
domain was ample, and was to him all the more 
valuable as it had become his by enterprise, skill- 
ful management, and unflinching persistence in 
hard work. Like Francis Nurse, he had bought 
this valuable estate, thirty-one years before, with- 
out capital — having only a ton of bar iron and 
twenty shillings at the time — had put his brains 
and strong hands against the mortgage, and it 
became his. He, his children and children's chil- 
dren, as the generations came on, plodded punc- 
tually over the long distance to the Village 
meeting-house to hear the word preached, and to 
secure thereby a better treasure in heaven. 

Sadly, though not so destructively as with many, 
did the witchcraft movement break in upon the 
quiet of his old age. 

Bray's grandson, John Willard, had been em- 



WITCH HILL. 167 

ployed as a deputy constable, and been engaged 
in arresting the accused persons. He seems to 
have been a straightforward man of strong sense. 
He had seen much of the accusers, the accused, 
and their worships, the magistrates, and came to 
the conclusion that the accused were those de- 
serving sympathy, and that the others were "be- 
witched." This he made free to express. At a 
friend's house, in familiar talk, he had exclaimed, 
" Hang them, they are all witches ! " This of course 
was dangerous talk in those times. Whisperings 
against him began to fill the air. Hearing of these, 
he went one day to his grandfather's in much 
trouble, desiring of him and some neighbors, their 
counsel and prayers. The old man did not re- 
spond in a very Christian -like spirit, and seems to 
have had afterward, in relation to the request, a 
sore conscience. He put Willard off by saying 
that he was going from home, but if he returned 
before night he "should not be unwilling" to 
unite with others in prayers for him. But he came 
home late, and confesses that the prayers were 
not offered. Willard did not complain, but Wil- 
kins said to the Court subsequently: "Whether 
my not answering his desire did not offend him, I 
cannot tell; but I was jealous, afterward, that 
it did." 

The old man's jealousy, as it generally happens 
with that dangerous feeling, grew apace. Through 
it he saw an evil intent in every act and look of 
his grandson. The cords of family and neighborly 
confidence felt the strain of the witchcraft storm, 



168 WITCH HILL. 

and throughout the Village and town, and to some 
extent in all towns bordering on them, were snap- 
ping asunder. 

Bray Wilkins about this time, it being election 
week, mounted his horse, took his wife on a pillion 
behind, and started for Boston. A brave old 
couple were they to ride this distance, over new 
roads, at fourscore years each ! But election day 
was a " high day," and were they not yet young ? 

John Willard was minded also to go to election, 
having engaged the company of Henry Wilkins, 
Jun. Henry's son Daniel, seventeen years old, 
begged his father not to go, repeating the stories 
against Willard, and exclaiming, "It were well if 
John Willard were hanged ! " 

On election day our aged friend, nothing esteem- 
ing the weariness of the recent ride from Will's 
Hill, nor the excitement of the scenes just wit- 
nessed, rode out to Dorchester and dined with his 
brother, Lieutenant Richard Way. His former 
Pastor, Deodat Lawson, and his wife were there ; 
all seems to have gone " as merry as a marriage 
bell" until Henry Wilkins and John Willard came 
in. There was perhaps soreness felt on the part 
of Willard ; there was confessed jealousy on the 
part of Old Bray. He says, " To my apprehension, 
he looked after such a sort upon me as I never 
before discerned in any." Soon after the old gen- 
tleman was seized with severe pain, "like a man 
on a rack." He thus states the case : " I told my 
wife immediately that I w^as afraid that Willard 
had done me wrong; my pain continuing, and 



WITCH HILL. 169 

finding no relief, my jealousy continued. Mr. 
Lawson and others there were all amazed, and 
knew not what to do for me. There was a woman 
accounted skillful came hoping to help me, and 
after she had used means, she asked me whether 
none of those evil persons had done me damage. 
I said I could not say they had, but I was sore 
afraid they had. She answered, she did fear so 
too. As near as I remember, I lay in this case 
three or four days in Boston ; afterward, with the 
jeopardy of my life, as I thought, I came home." 

When he arrived at Will's Hill he found his 
grandson, Daniel Wilkins, who had warned his 
father not to go to election with Willard, in mortal 
agony. Increased consternation spread through- 
out the whole region. Who could be safe from 
the foe that thus walked in darkness and wasted 
at noonday ! The Wilkinses generally began to 
have pains unimagined before. Parris and the 
circle rushed to the rescue. Mercy Lewis and 
Mary Walcot were invited to solve the mystery 
of the sufferings of the old man and his grandson ! 
They stood by the bed of Daniel, seeing, as they 
declared, old Mrs. Buckley and John Willard 
" upon his throat and breast, pressing and choking 
him until the breath left his body, and be lay cold 
in death." 

From this sad scene Mary Lewis went to the 
sick room of Bray. The friends asked her if she 
saw any thing. " I'm looking for John Willard," 
was the reply. Soon she exclaimed, "There he is 
upon his grandfather's belly ! " The old man testi- 



170 WITCH HILL. 

fied to the grievous pain "lie did then feel in the 
small of his belly." 

Mrs. Sergeant Thomas Putnam came to the help 
of the girls against Willard. There is surely now 
no hope in Willard' s case! "A troop cometh" 
against him, shadowy, ghastly, and terrific. Mrs. 
Putnam sees them all, describes their appearance, 
and reports their testimony, every word of which 
is a shaft of fire to John. First comes Samuel 
Fuller and Lydia Wilkins in their winding-sheets, 
declaring to her that John Willard was their 
murderer. Then comes John himself, confess- 
ing the truth of the above charge, and adding 
the names of Goody Shaw, and Fuller's second 
wife, and Aaron Way's child, and Ben. Fuller's 
child, and Sarah, an infant child of Mrs. Putnam 
herself, and Philip Knight's child, (with the help 
of William Hobbs,) and Jonathan Knight's child, 
and two children of Ezekiel Cheever, (with the 
help also of Hobbs,) adding all these in his spec- 
tral confession to the list of those whom he had 
put to death. The appearance of Fuller and 
Wilkins threatened to tear Mrs. Putnam in pieces 
if she did not report their charge against the ac- 
cused to Hathorne, and rather cautiously threat- 
ened to appear to the magistrates — "perhaps they 
would " — if they did not believe the accusation. 

A coroner's jury, with Nathaniel Putnam as 
foreman, held their inquest over the body of young 
Daniel Wilkins. There is no direct account of its 
findings, but Bray, in a dispute with some persons 
concerning their belief that Willard was innocent, 



WITCH HILL. 171 

defends himself from responsibility for Willard's 
conviction by saying : " It was not I, nor my son 
Benjamin Wilkins, but the testimony of the af- 
flicted persons, and the jury concerning the murder 
of my grandson, Dan Wilkins, that would take 
away his life if any thing did." So it may be in- 
ferred that the jury found Daniel's death to be 
caused by witchcraft through John Willard. 

The warrant against Willard was taken the 
same. day of the examination of Jacobs. But it 
was eight days before his apprehension. He fled, 
and all the marshals and their deputies in the 
colony were set on his track. He was arrested in 
Groton, and brought to Beadle's tavern in Salem, 
tried, and committed. He was, of course, con- 
demned in fact long before. 

We have no account of his examination. We 
can easily, and not unjustly to any parties, imagine 
the ghostly sights, and horrid tortures by him, of 
the girls, and the demand of Hathorne upon the 
prisoner to explain the phenomenon upon any 
other assumption than his confederacy with the 
devil, and his voluntary doing what his specter 
did. 

Willard's case is curious, and some parts of it 
would be ludicrous were they not so sad in their 
results. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

@J)£ StfjiriglUllife* Jijpuit 

MRS. ELIZABETH HOW was the wife of 
James How. They lived on the borders of 
Topsfield and Ipswich. We shall admire the Chris- 
tian bearing of Mrs. How, and love her Christ-like 
spirit, which neither wrongs nor personal sufferings 
could Overpow r er. Her husband, w T ho was blind, 
will excite our sympathy. When we shall see, 
toward the close of the volume, the persistent 
devotion of their daughters to both parents in 
their sufferings, we shall greet them as our own 
sisters. 

Though living away from the Village and town, 
the Hows evidently were conversant with good 
company, and with the means of improving mind 
and heart. Not so with at least some of their 
neighbors. They had not seen the school-master, 
nor do we think they often saw the meeting-house. 
Their complaints against Mrs. How as a witch are 
grounded upon circumstances that .appear foolish 
even in comparison with those alleged elsewhere 
against other persons. An example or two w r ill 
suffice to show this, and show the extreme demor- 
alization of the people by the prevailing delusion. 

Timothy Perley and wife had some time previ- 



WITCH HILL. 173 

ous had "a difference" with Mrs. How about some 
boards. That very night the three cows of the 
Perleys lay out. In the morning they went to 
milk them, and, instead of the generous pailful 
they were wont to give, a meager quart or so was 
obtained. For several days this continued to be 
the milking, though " they were in a good English 
pasture;" then, "for no apparent reason, they re- 
turned to their old pailsful." Their inference was 
that Mrs. How had bewitched them, and with this 
matter the Court was entertained. 

Another neighbor, Isaac Cummings, Sen., was 
applied to by Mrs. How's husband for the loan of 
a horse. Cummings happened not to be at home, 
and his son replied to the request that his father 
had only a mare, and he did not think he would 
like to lend it. This was Thursday. On Friday 
Cummings and his wife rode out on the mare, re- 
turning at night and turning her into the pasture 
"in good order to his thinking." In the morning 
she stood at his door, weary, worn in flesh, and 
bit sore. The usual remedies for ailing horses 
w r ere applied, and one, at least, unusual one, we 
should think. A pipe of lighted tobacco was 
brought to the mare and immediately it blazed 
up, the flame covering the buttocks of the horse, 
and shooting up into the roof of the barn, which 
"crackled" with a noise heard outside as well as 
within. No man seemed to be the worse for the 
fire, but the conviction was deepened that "an evil 
hand " was in the affair. 

One more remedy was proposed, which was to 



174 WITCH HILL. 

burn a portion of the mare's flesh ; but she dropped 
suddenly dead. 

The connection of Mrs. How with these occur- 
rences was established by the neighbors by a 
stroke of Judge Hathorne's logic — if she did not 
do it, who or what did ? 

But a more serious accusation was made against 
Mrs. How by Timothy and Samuel Perley. They 
charged her with bewitching a daughter of the 
latter, a girl ten years old. The girl, according to 
their testimony, had the usual tortures, pinches, 
and pricks with pins, besides being "pulled into 
the fire and sorely burned, and thrown into the 
water," which rough treatment continued two or 
three years, ending only with her death. The con- 
nection with Mrs. How was established by the 
usual spectral appearances. 

But this good woman was not without consist- 
ent, earnest friends — those who came forward in 
her defense against her accusers. They put the 
case of the afflicted child of Samuel Perley in a 
different light. 

The Rev. Samuel Phillips, of Rowley, gave, in 
substance, the following testimony : Being desired 
by Samuel Perley, he visited his house, in company 
with Rev. Mr. Payson, also of Rowley, to see the 
afflicted child, Hannah. When they were in the 
house she had one of her fits, but did not men- 
tion Mrs. How. When the attack was over Mrs. 
How, who was present, went to the child, took 
her hand and asked her if she had ever done her 
any hurt. She replied cordially, "No, never; and 



WITCH HILL. 175 

if I did complain of you in my fits I knew not that 
I did so." 

Mr. Phillips further testified upon oath, "That 
young Samuel Perley, brother to the afflicted girl, 
looked out of the window, (I and the afflicted girl 
being without doors together,) and said to his sis- 
ter, 'Say Goodwife How is a witch — say she is a 
witch;' and the child spake not a word that way. 
But I looked up to the window where the child 
stood, and rebuked him for his boldness to stir up 
his sister to accuse the said Goodwife How ; 
whereas she had cleared her from doing any hurt 
to his sister in both our hearing; and I added, 
4 No wonder the child in fits did mention Goodwife 
How when her nearest relations were so frequent 
in expressing their suspicions, in the child's hearing 
when she was out of her fit, that the said Goodwife 
How was an instrument of mischief to the child." 

Mr. Payson gave a like testimony. 

Other witnesses said, under oath : " We have 
often spoke to Goodwife How of some things that 
were reported of her that gave some suspicion of 
that she is now charged with ; and she always 
professing her innocency, often desired our prayers 
to God for her, that God would keep her in his 
fear, and support her under her burden. We have 
often heard her speaking of those persons that 
raised those reports of her, and we never heard her 
speak badly of them for the same; but, in our 
hearing, hath often said that she desired God that 
he would sanctify that affliction, as well as others, 
for her spiritual good." 



176 WITCH HILL. 

Simon Chapman and Mary his wife testify that 
"They have been acquainted with the wife of 
James How, Jun., as a neighbor, for this nine or 
ten years, that they have resided in the same house 
with her by the fortnight together, and that they 
never found any thing bnt what was good in her. 
They found at all times by her discourse that she 
was a woman of afflictions, and mourning for sin 
in herself and others ; and when she met with any 
affliction she seemed to justify God and say that 
it was all better than she deserved, though it was 
by false accusations from men. She used to bless 
God that she got good by affliction, for it made 
her examine her own heart. We never heard her 
revile any person that hath accused her of witch- 
craft, but pitied them and said, 'I pray God for- 
give them, for they harm themselves more than 
me. Though I am a great sinner I am clear of 
that, and such kind of affliction doth but send me 
to examine my own heart, and I find God wonder- 
fully supporting me and comforting me by his 
word and promises.' " 

Other neighbors gave equally full and explicit 
testimony of her readiness truly to bless those that 
cursed her, to do good to them that hated her, 
and to pray for them that despitefully used her 
and persecuted her. 

The declaration concerning her by her hus- 
band's father, ninety-four years old, is quite to the 
purpose : " He, living by her for thirty years, hath 
taken notice that she hath carried it well becoming 
her place, as a daughter, as a wife, in all relations 



WITCH HILL. 177 

(setting aside human infirmities) as a Christian; 
with respect to myself as a father, very dutifully ; 
and as a wife to my son, very careful, loving, obe- 
dient, and kind ; considering his want of eye-sight, 
tenderly leading him about by the hand. Desiring 
God may guide your honors, I rest yours to serve." 

Mrs. How was brought into court May 31. 

It is but just that these testimonies of the Pas- 
tors of her town, and of those who well knew her, 
should be remembered in connection with the bear- 
ing of the examining magistrate toward her, and 
the final disposition of her case by the Court. The 
Village girls appeared against her in the usual 
manner. The Court demands : " What say you to 
this charge ? here are them which charge you w T ith 
witchcraft." 

"If it was the last moment I was to live, God 
knows I am innocent of any thing in this nature." 

The girls were continually " knocked down " by 
a glance of her eye, and brought out of a fit by 
touching her. When they attempted to approach 
her they were prostrated as if by a violent shock 
of electricity. 

The Justice asks Mrs. How, " What do you say 
to these things ? they cannot come to you." 

" Sir, I am not able to give account of it." 

" Cannot you tell what keeps them off from your 
body?" 

" I cannot tell. I know not what it is." 

"That is strange, that you should do these 
things and not be able to tell how." 

Thus, as always, the Court assumed that the 



178 WITCH HILL. 

falling down, recovery, and tortures of the accus- 
ers were by the will of the accused, and undeni- 
able testimony of their guilt. 

Mrs. Elizabeth How followed the other com- 
mitted persons, in irons, to her cell. 

Mrs. Mary Bradbury, wife of Captain Thomas 
Bradbury, of Salisbury, was another woman of 
Christ-like spirit. She was now, 1692, seventy five 
years of age. The years of her married life, at 
least, had been spent among the people who were 
now called to judge whether there could be "a 
presumption" from her past spirit and conduct 
that she had committed the greatest crime possible 
to human depravity. 

Her husband had been for more than fifty years 
trusted by his fellow-citizens with almost every 
office in their gift requiring capacity and high 
moral character. Their social position is recog- 
nized in the manner in which his wife is addressed, 
not as "Goody" or " Goodwife," but uniformly as 
"Mrs." Bradbury. At the time of her arrest she 
was in feeble health. 

We have first : 

"The answer of Mary Bradbury to the charge 
of witchcraft, or familiarity with the devil. 

" c I do plead " not guilty." I am wholly inno- 
cent of any such wickedness, through the goodness 
of God that hath kept me hitherto. I am the serv- 
ant of Jesus Christ, and have given myself up to 
him as my only Lord and Saviour, and to the dili- 
gent attendance upon him in all his holy ordi- 
nances, in utter contempt and defiance of the devil 



WITCH HILL. 179 

and all his works, as horrid and detestable, and 
accordingly have endeavored to frame my life and 
conversation according to the rules of his holy 
word; and in that faith and practice resolve, by 
the help and assistance of God, to continue to my 
life's end. 

"Tor the truth of what I sav, as to matter of 
practice, I humbly refer myself to my brethren and 
neighbors that know me, and unto the Searcher 
of all hearts, for the truth and uprightness of my 
heart therein, (human frailties and unavoidable in- 
firmities excepted, of which I complain every day.) 

"'Mary Bradbury. ' " 

Her husband thus testifies : 

"July 28, 1692. — Concerning my beloved wife, 
Mary Bradbury, this is what I have to say: We 
have been married fifty-five years, and she hath 
been a loving and faithful wife to me. Unto this 
day she hath been wonderful laborious, diligent, 
and industrious in her place and employment about 
bringing up of our family, (which have been eleven 
children of our own, and four grandchildren.) She 
was both prudent and provident, of a cheerful spirit, 
liberal and charitable. She being now very aged 
and weak, and grieved under her affliction, may not 
be able to speak much for herself, not being so free 
of speech as some others may be. I hope her life 
and conversation have been such amongst her neigh- 
bors as gives a better and more real testimony of 
her than can be expressed by words. Owned by me, 

"Thomas Bradbury." 



180 WITCH HILL 

The Rev. James Allin made oath before a magis- 
trate, that having been nine years in the ministry 
in Salisbury, he had never known any thing in 
Mrs. Bradbury unbecoming the gospel; that she 
was a constant attender upon the ministry of the 
Word and all the ordinances of the gospel ; full of 
works of charity and mercy to the sick and poor. 

Robert Pike, a man of prominence and distinc- 
tion, who had known Mrs. Bradbury " upward of 
fifty years," and John Pike, both indorsed Mr. 
Allin's testimony. More than this, one hundred 
and seventeen of her neighbors, most of them 
heads of families, among whom w x ere persons of 
the highest social and moral standing, gave, in 
substance, the same high character to the accused 
as did her husband and Pastor. They say, among 
other warm commendations, that they never knew 
or heard that she " ever had any difference or fall- 
ing out with any of her neighbors, man, woman, 
or child," but that, hazarding her health, and con- 
fronting every danger, she had served the needy." 

Set against this life record were a few testi- 
monies made up of such stuff as the following : 

" The deposition of Richard Carr, who testifieth 
and saith, that about thirteen years ago, presently 
after some difference to be between my honored 
father, George Carr, and Mrs. Bradbury, the pris- 
oner at the bar, upon the Sabbath at noon, we 
were riding home by the house of Captain Thomas 
Bradbury, I saw Mrs. Bradbury go into her gate, 
turn the comer of, and immediately there darted 
out of her gate a blue boar, and darted at my 



WITCH HILL. 181 

father — at my father's horse's legs, which made 
her stumble; but I saw it no more. And my 
father said, 'Boys, what do you see?' We both 
answered, c A blue boar.' " 

Zerubbabel Endicott was living at George Carr's 
at the time, and testifies to the same thing. He 
adds that, when they answered, "A blue boar," 
Carr asked, " Whence came it ? " They said, " Out 
of Mr. Bradbury's gate." " Then," said he, " I am 
glad you saw it as well as I." 

It is worthy of remark that George Carr was the 
father of Mrs. Ann Putnam, who w^as from Salis- 
bury. 

As Mrs. Bradbury was sent to jail to await her 
trial, when the death penalty would hang over 
her head, we may presume, in reference to her ex- 
amination, the usual spectral visions on the part 
of the circle, in which they are tormented by the 
prisoner, and the customary assumptions of the 
Court. 

12 








CHAPTER XVIII. 

JitaiUisu&tg of P^wna! J|iiiififtfr*r& 

JONATHAN CARY lived in Chailestown. 
J While rumors were rife against a Mrs. Cary, 
he and his wife visited Salem Village to ascertain 
whether she was really the person meant. But it 
will be of special interest to have Mr. Gary tell the 
story of what he saw and suffered, and the more 
so as it enables us to have an inside view of the 
parties at the trials : 

"May 24. — I having heard, some days, that my 
wife was accused of witchcraft, being much dis- 
turbed at it, by advice went to Salem Village, to 
see if the afflicted knew her; we arrived there on 
the 24th of May. It happened to be a day ap- 
pointed for examination. Accordingly, soon after 
our arrival, Mr. Hathorne, Mr. Corwin, etc., went 
to the meeting-house, the place appointed for that 
work. The minister began with prayer; and, 
having taken care to get a convenient place, I ob- 
served that the afflicted were two girls of about 
ten years old, and two or three others of about 
eighteen; one of the girls talked most, and could 
discern more than the rest. 

" The prisoners were called in one by one, and 
as they came in were cried out at, etc. The pris- 



WITCH HILL. 183 

oners were placed about seven or eight feet from 
the justices, and the accusers between the justices 
and them. The prisoners were commanded to 
stand right before the justices, with an officer ap- 
pointed to hold each hand, lest they should there- 
with afflict them ; and the prisoners' eyes must be 
constantly on the justices, for if they looked on 
the afflicted they would either fall into fits or cry 
out of being hurt by them. After an examination 
of the prisoners, who it was afflicted these girls, 
etc., they were put upon saying the Lord's Prayer 
as a trial of their guilt. After the afflicted seemed 
to be out of their fits, they would look steadfastly 
on some one person and frequently not speak, 
and then the justices said they were struck dumb, 
and after a little time would speak again ; then the 
justices said to the accusers, i Which of you will 
go and touch the prisoner at the bar ? ' Then the 
most courageous would adventure, but, before they 
had made three steps, w^ould ordinarily fall down 
as in a fit. The justices ordered that they should 
be taken up and carried to the prisoner, that she 
might touch them; and as soon as they were 
touched by the accused the justices would say, 
' They are well,' before I could discern any altera- 
tion, by which I observed that the justices under- 
stood the manner of it. 

" Thus far I was only a spectator. My wife also 
was there part of the time, but no notice was taken 
of her by the afflicted, except once or twice they 
came to her and asked her name. But I, having 
an opportunity to discourse with Mr. Hale, (with 



184 WITCH HILL. 

whom I had formerly acquaintance,) I took his 
advice what I had best do, and desired of him that 
I might have an opportunity to speak with her 
that accused my wife, which he promised should 
be. I acquainted him that I reposed my trust in 
him. Accordingly, he came to me after the exami- 
nation was over, and told me I had now an oppor- 
tunity to speak with her said accuser, Abigail 
Williams, a girl eleven or twelve years eld, but 
that we could not be in private at Mr. Parris' 
house, as he had promised me. We went, there- 
fore, into the ale-house, where an Indian man at- 
tended me, who, it seems, was one of the afflicted. 
To him we gave some cider; he showed several 
scars that seemed as if they had been long there, 
and showed them as done by witchcraft, and ac- 
quainted us that his wife, who also was a slave, 
was imprisoned for witchcraft. And now, instead 
of one accuser, they all came in, and began to 
tumble down like swine; and then three women 
came in to attend them. 

" We in the room were all at a stand to see who 
they would cry out of, but in a short time they 
cried out c Cary ; ' and, immediately after, a war- 
rant was sent from the justices to bring my wife 
before them, who was sitting in a chamber near 
by waiting for this. 

" Being brought before the justices, her chief ac- 
cusers were two girls. My wife declared before 
the justice that she never had any knowledge of 
them before that day. She was forced to stand 
with her arms stretched out. 



WITCH HILL. 185 

" I requested that I might hold one of her hands, 
but it was denied me. Then she desired me to 
wipe the tears from her eyes and the sweat from 
her face, which I did. Then she desired she might 
lean herself on me, saying she should faint. 

"Justice Hathorne replied she had strength 
enough to torment these persons, and she should 
have strength enough to stand. I speaking some- 
what against their cruel proceedings, they com- 
manded me to be silent or else I should be turned 
out of the room. 

"The Indian before mentioned was brought in 
to be one of her accusers. Being; come in, he now, 
when before the justices, fell down and tumbled 
about like a hog, but said nothing. The justices 
asked the girls who afflicted the Indian. They 
answered, ' she,' meaning my wife, and that she 
now lay upon him. The justices ordered her to 
touch him in order to his cure, but her head must 
be turned away, lest, instead of curing, she should 
make him worse by looking on him, her hand be- 
ing guided to take hold of his; but the Indian 
took hold of her hand and pulled her down to the 
floor in a barbarous manner. Then his hand was 
taken off, and her hand put on his, and the cure 
was quickly wrought. 

"I, being exceeding troubled at their inhuman 
proceedings, uttered a hasty speech, that God 
would take vengeance on them, and desired that 
God would deliver us out of the hands of unmerci- 
ful men. Then her mittimus was writ. 

"I did with difficulty and charge obtain the 



186 WITCH HILL. 

liberty of a room, but no beds in it. If there had 
been, I could have taken but little rest that night. 

"She was committed to Boston prison, but I 
obtained a habeas corpus, to remove her to Cam- 
bridge prison, which is in our own county of Mid- 
dlesex. Having been there one night, next morn- 
ing the jailer put irons on her legs, (having re- 
ceived such a command ;) the weight of them was 
about eight pounds. These irons and her other 
afflictions brought her into convulsion fits, so that 
I thought she would have died that night. I 
sent to entreat that the irons might be taken off. 
But all entreaties were in vain if it were to have 
saved her life, so that in this condition she must 
continue. 

" The trials at Salem coming on, I went thither 
to see how things were managed. Finding that 
specter evidence was there received, and idle if not 
malicious stories against people's lives, I did easily 
perceive which way the rest would go; for the 
same evidence that served for one w T ould serve for 
all the rest. I acquainted her with her danger, 
and if she were carried to Salem to be tried I 
feared she would never return. I did my utmost 
that she might have her trial in our own county, 
I with several others petitioning the judge for it, 
and were put in hopes of it. But I soon saw so 
much that I understood thereby it w T as not in- 
tended, which put me upon consulting the means 
of her escape, which, through the goodness of God, 
was effected. She got to Rhode Island, but soon 
found herself not safe when there by reason of the 



WITCH HILL. 187 

pursuit after her. From thence she went to New 
York, along with some others that had escaped 
their cruel hands, where we found his excellency, 
Benjamin Fletcher, Esq., Governor, who was very 
courteous to us. After this some of my goods 
were seized in a friend's hands, with whom I had 
left them, and myself imprisoned by the Sheriff, 
and kept in custody half a day and then dismissed. 
But to speak of their usage of the prisoners, and 
the inhumanity shown to them at the time of their 
execution, no sober Christian could bear. They 
had also trials of cruel mockings, which is the more 
considering what a people for religion, I mean the 
profession of it, we have been ; those that suffered 
being many of them Church members, and most 
of them unspotted in their conversation till their 
adversary the devil took up this method for ac- 
cusing them. Jonathan Cart." 

The escape of Mrs. Cary from the snare of these 
witchcraft fowlers was plainly owing, "through 
the goodness of God," to the fearless energy of her 
husband. It is plain that he wag neither deceived 
by the spectral theory of their worships, nor in- 
timidated by their tyranny. 

There is a curious sequel to this Cary affair. 
The woman cried out against by the girls was 
Elizabeth, wife of Captain Nathaniel Cary of 
Charlestown. The girls had seen her "appearance" 
— of course, her exact likeness, as they claimed — 
tormenting them. Jonathan and his wife, catch- 
ing at the name of " Cary," as rumor published it, 



188 WITCH HILL. 

in the simplicity of their innocence, went to Salem 
Village, where they were unknown except to Mr. 
Hale. The girls, seeing the strangers, inquired 
their names, and, learning that it was Gary, from 
Charlestown, thought they had caught the one 
whom they had been accusing. It would seem, 
then, that spectral photographs did not enable the 
girls to determine living originals — a vital point 
concerning the value of their testimony. The war- 
rant for Mrs. Hannah Cary's arrest read "Eliza- 
beth, wife of Captain Nathaniel Cary," but in the 
hurry and confusion none noticed the error. The 
accusers, thinking that their originally intended 
victim had been dealt with, never further cried out 
against Elizabeth, who thus made an easy escape. 
We have further the statement, from his own 
pen, of one who himself had been caught in the 
same snare — Captain John Alden. He had been 
commander of the colony's armed vessel; he had 
seen service in the French and Indian wars ; had 
been a commissioner in conducting treaties with 
the Indian tribes, and was largely experienced 
as a sailor and •naval commander — a tried and 
trusted man, of large property and good standing 
as a member of the Church. Captain Alden was 
a son of that Pilgrim of the Pilgrims, John Alden 
of the Mayflower, who had been dead now but six 
years. The Captain w T as seventy years of age in 
1692, and so w r as born and cradled in that period 
of the Plymouth colony w T hen its fathers were 
struggling to maintain its existence. He seems to 
have been a worthy son of this purest Puritanism. 



WITCH HILL. 189 

How the Captain came to be "cried out against" 
by the circle is not known. He had lived in Bos- 
ton thirty years, and Avas undoubtedly compro- 
mised by some informer coming between them. 

"An account how John Alden, Sen., was dealt 
with at Salem Village. 

"John Alden, Sen., of Boston, in the county of 
Suffolk, mariner, on the twenty-eighth clay of May, 
1692, was sent for by the magistrates of Salem, in 
the county of Essex, upon the accusation of a com- 
pany of poor distracted or possessed creatures or 
witches; and, being sent by Mr. Stoughton, ar- 
rived there on the 31st of May, and appeared at 
Salem Village before Mr. Gedney, Mr. Hathorne, 
and Mr. Corwin. 

"These witches being present who played their 
juggling tricks, falling down, crying out, and 
staring in people's faces, the magistrates demanded 
of them several times who it was, of all the people 
in the room, that hurt them. One of the accusers 
pointed several times at one Captain Hill, then 
present, but spake nothing. The same accuser had 
a man at her back to hold her up. He stooped 
down to her ear; then she cried out, 'Alden, Al- 
den' afflicted her. One of the magistrates asked 
her if she had ever seen Alden. She answered, 
' No.' He asked her how she knew it was Alden. 
She said the man told her so. 

"Then all were ordered to go down into the 
street, where a ring was made; and the same ac- 
cuser cried out, ' There stands Alden, a bold fellow, 
with his hat on before the Judges; he sells powder 



190 WITCH HILL. 

and shot to the Indians and French, and . . . has 
Indian papooses.' Then was Alden committed to 
the marshal 1 s custody and his sword taken from 
him, for they said he afflicted them with his sword. 
After some hours Alden was sent for to the meet- 
ing-house in the Village, before the magistrates, 
who required Alden to stand upon a chair, to the 
open view of all the people, a good way distant 
from them. One of the magistrates bid the marshal 
to hold open Alden's hands, that he might not 
pinch those creatures. Alden asked them why 
they should think that he should come to that vil- 
lage to afflict those persons that he never knew or 
saw before. Mr. Gedney bid Alden to confess, and 
give glory to God. Alden said he hoped he should 
give glory to God, and hoped he should never 
gratify the devil, but appealed to all that ever knew 
him if they ever suspected him to be such a person, 
and challenged any one that could bring in any 
thing on their own knowledge that might give 
suspicion that he was such a one. 

"Mr. Gedney said he had known Alden many 
years, and had been at sea with him, and always 
looked upon him as an honest man; but now he 
saw cause to alter his judgment. 

" Alden answered he was sorry for that, but he 
hoped God would clear up his innocency that he 
would recall that judgment again; and added he 
hoped he should, with Job, maintain his integrity 
till he died. 

" They bid Alden look upon the accusers, which 
lie did, and then they fell down. 



WITCH HILL. 191 

"Alden asked Mr. Gedney what reason there 
could be given why Alden's looking upon him 
did not strike him down as w^ell; but no reason 
was given that I heard. 

"The accusers were brought to Alden to touch 
them ; and this touch, they said, made them whole. 

" Alden began to speak of the providence of God 
in suffering these creatures to accuse innocent 
persons. 

"Mr. Noyes asked Alden why he should offer 
to speak of the providence of God. 'God, by his 
providence,' said Mr. No yes, 'governs the world 
and keeps it in peace,' and so went on with dis- 
course, and stopped Alden's mouth as to that. 

"Alden told Mr. Gedney that he could assure 
him there was a lying spirit in them ; for I can as- 
sure you there is not a word of truth in all these 
say of me. But Alden was again committed to 
the marshal and his mittimus was written. 

" To Boston Alden was carried by a constable ; 
no bail would be taken for him, but was delivered 
to the prison keeper, where he remained fifteen 
weeks, and then, observing the manner of the 
trials, and the evidence then taken, was at length 
prevailed with to make his escape. 

"Per John Alden." 



¥ 



CHAPTER XIX. 

®!k Hginal ©oust* 

E have thus far noticed the cases of persons 
whose arrest and trial show the grounds of 
the proceedings of the Court, and the spirit of the 
accusers and prosecutors. We have omitted many, 
because the details are essentially the same as in 
those given. One feature running through all the 
trials, of great interest and significance, we shall 
give in the chapter on "confessions," illustrating 
it by curious facts. 

The infatuation was now fearfully intense. We 
have but to notice one direction which it took, 
showing this fact, before we turn our attention to 
the Court which was intrusted with the fearful 
responsibility of the death penalty. 

A man in Andover had a sick wife. We sup- 
pose the physicians had exhausted their skill upon 
her, and, being baffled by the disease, as the most 
skillful doctors will be, had given dark hints of an 
evil hand. At any rate the husband, in the sim- 
plicity of his heart and the darkness of Lis under- 
standing, went to Salem Vilbige and obtained two 
of the circle girls, and carried them to his home 
to reveal to him the mystery of his wife's illness. 
They fitly personated Pestilence and Death as they 



WITCH HILL. 193 

entered the town. They saw, of course, ghostly 
tormentors upon the person of the sick woman, 
and cried out against them. The flames of excite- 
ment were like a prairie fire driven by a fierce 
wind. In a short time after the visit of the girls, 
they had been the means of sending fifty persons 
to prison, to await in chains a threatened death on 
the gallows. To escape accusations, people turned 
accusers, and thus lied against the lives of neigh- 
bors and friends. A tempting refuge from the 
wrath of the storm was afforded by confession, and 
thus many, as we shall see, to save life imperiled 
their souls. Dudley Bradstreet, the magistrate of 
Andover, sat on the bench, listening to the witch- 
craft exhibitions and testimony, until he had com- 
mitted forty to prison. His soul then sickened, 
his returning reason revolted at the proceedings, 
and he refused to sit in judgment on any others. 
This step, proved that even magistrates were not 
beyond the reach of the Satanic accusations. He 
and his wife were seen in specter at the torturing 
business, and they had to flee for their lives. John 
Bradstreet, brother of this flying justice, was ac- 
cused of " afflicting" a dog — a small business — and 
he too fled, while his disappointed prosecutors 
contented themselves with "executing" the dog. 
Why a poor brute should lose his life for being 
bewitched, and a bewitched girl be pitied, and in- 
vested with the fearful power of taking the lives 
of others, is not explained by the records. 

While the panic at Andover was, at one time, 
equal perhaps in its fury to that of any place in 



194 WITCH HILL. 

the country, there was, as we shall see, a reaction- 
ary power there which was early and decidedly 
exerted. 

Such had been the history of the witchcraft de- 
lusion, and such was its pending condition, as we 
have briefly described in the preceding pages, 
when a special commission was appointed by the 
Governor of the colony to hear and determine 
finally the witch craft cases. It was known as the 
Court of Oyer and Terminer. Sir William Phipps, 
the Governor, had arrived at Boston from England 
on the 14th day of May. William Stoughton, of 
whom we shall know more, was now Lieutenant- 
Governor in the place of Danforth. Bartholomew 
Gedney, John Hathorne, Jonathan Corwin, Samuel 
Appleton, and Robert Pike, were in the Council 
from Essex County. 

The new rulers did not interfere with the witch- 
craft proceedings, except that Mr. Gedney was 
sent to aid Hathorne and his associates, thus giv- 
ing them " aid and comfort." Gedney presided at 
their sessions. Thus affairs stood when the special 
court was created by the Governor and his Coun- 
cil. It is an interesting fact that their right to 
appoint such a court has always been doubted by 
high authority. This power, it is believed, re- 
quired the concurrence of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. Had the Governor and Council waited 
to convene this important branch of the govern- 
ment it would have carried the special court into 
the time when the reaction had set in, and its 
power would have been lost, and no lives sacri- 



WITCH HILL. 195 

ficed. Our history would then have been more of 
a comedy than a tragedy. 

The justices constituting the Court were all 
members of the Council. Lieutenant-Governor 
William Stoughton was appointed Chief-Justice. 
His associates were John Richards, Wait Win- 
throp, Samuel Sewall, and Peter Sargent, all of 
Boston; Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill, and 
Bartholomew Geclney of Salem. The Chief-Justice 
resided in Dorchester, so that only two of the 
Court were citizens of Essex County. 

George Corwin, nephew of Jonathan Corwin 
who had been associated with Hathorne in the 
lower court, was appointed sheriff of the county, 
and Herrick acted as deputy. The title of " mar- 
shal" had ceased. Sheriff Corwin was only twenty- 
six years of age. He was son-in-law to one of the 
justices, and two others were his uncles. He 
needed, in the end, all these family influences to 
shield him from the vindictive feelings following 
the collapse of the delusion. His official duties, 
though less responsible than those of the judges, 
were even more painful. 

The Court opened in Salem in the first week in 
June. The place of meeting was now the court- 
house, used also as a town-house. Thomas New- 
ton of Boston had been commissioned to act as 
attorney-general. 

The records of this Court are not in existence. 
What we know of its doings is learned from early 
writers. Hutchinson is believed to have had ac- 
cess to the records, as he gives dates and other 



196 WITCH HILL. 

details in some of the cases which he describes. 
Why these records have been taken from the files 
of court papers, where, no doubt, they once were, 
is not certainly known. It is natural to suppose 
that the immediate children of the chief actors in 
the painful transactions of the Court may have 
found means, in accordance with their wishes, to 
blot out, so far as these were concerned, their 
remembrance. 

We are now prepared to meet again some of 
those whom we have followed to their dreary 
prisons. 




CHAPTER XX. 

81 Jratal M^^nalt, art a ipaugc. 

TWICE we have had Bridget Bishop before us 
in the shifting scenes of our story. We shall 
easily recognize her now, though seen under more 
solemn circumstances than before. As she is just 
from several weeks' confinement in a felon's cell, 
she must not be expected to appear in her " black 
cap and black hat, and red paragon bodice, bor- 
dered and looped with several colors." She has 
something more serious to think of than her " shov- 
el-board." She cannot drive the circle girls from 
the Court as she drove from her premises the mean 
accusing man, who came calling for a pot of cider, 
with a spade wielded lustily in his retreating rear. 
Happy would it have been for all concerned if she 
had been intrusted with a scourge of cords, with 
power to expel by it, from their dishonored places, 
both Court and witnesses. 

The first witness against her was her Pastor, 
Rev. Mr. Hale of Beverly. Several years before 
she had been accused of witchcraft by an insane, 
wretched woman, who in her lucid moments dis- 
owned her accusations ; she had finally, overpow- 
ered by her mental disease, committed suicide. Mr. 

Hale then examined the case, and declared " Sister 

13 



198 WITCH HILL. 

Bishop" not deserving the suspicion of having by 
witchcraft murdered the woman. Now he reviews 
the whole matter under the misleadings of the 
prevalent infatuation, and renders under oath the 
following statement : " As to the wounds she died 
of, I observed three deadly ones; a piece of her 
windpipe cut out, and another wound above that 
through the windpipe and gullet, and the vein 
called jugular. So that I then judged and do now 
apprehend it impossible for her, with so short a 
pair of scissors, to mangle herself so without some 
extraordinary work of the devil or witchcraft." 

When, many years before, Mrs. Bishop lived in 
the town of Salem, she had a neighbor by the 
name of Samuel Shattuck. Shattuck was a hatter, 
and Bridget carried to him articles of dress to be 
dyed, very likely, among others, the ribbons with 
which her " paragon bodice " was " looped." Her 
manners, in her frequent coming, were " smooth 
and flattering," in the estimation of the hatter, at 
least, after he began to suspect her of witchcraft. 
The eldest son of the hatter was, when Bridget 
began her calls, a healthy child, sound in body and 
mind. As her calls became frequent, his health 
commenced to decline. When standing in the 
door-way he would fall into a fit, and seemed to 
his parents "to be thrust out by an invisible 
hand," being cut and bruised thereby "in a miser- 
able manner." When in his fits he gasped pain- 
fully for breath, his face and eyes at the same 
time dreadfully distorted. When not in his fits, 
he was continually moaning or crying pileously. 



WITCH HILL. 199 

He was often falling either into the fire or water. 
Reason yielded under these bodily sufferings, and 
he became imbecile in mind. 

In view of all these wonderful occurrences, which 
utterly confounded the doctors, the hatter and his 
wife "did think that he is bewitched; and did be- 
lieve that the aforesaid Bridget Bishop is the cause 
of it." 

John Cook, a neighbor's son, eighteen years of 
age, had the following remarkable experience: 
"About five or six years ago, one morning about 
sunrise, as I was abed, I saw Goodwife Bishop 
stand in the chamber by the window; and she 
looked on me, and grinned on me, and presently 
struck me on the side of the head, which did very 
much hurt me. Then I saw her go out under the 
end window at a little crevice about as big as I 
could thrust my hand into. I saw her again the 
same day, which was the Sabbath-day, about noon, 
walk across the room ; and having, at the time, an 
apple in my hand, it flew out of my hand into my 
mother's lap, who sat six or eight feet distance 
from me; and then she disappeared." John's 
mother and several others were in the room, but 
they " affirmed they saw her not." 

The next who take the stand are John Bly 
and his wife Rebecca. They had, at some time, a 
business transaction with Bridget, in which she 
sold John a hog. Now it occasionally happened 
in the days of our fathers, as in our days, that in 
tjie final settlement of such transactions one or 
both the parties were afflicted. But in this case 



200 WITCH HILL. 

it was the hog, as witnesses did swear, which was 
" afflicted." " She was taken with strange fits, 
jumping up and knocking her head against the 
fence, and seemed blind and deaf. She refused to 
suckle her pigs and foamed at the mouth." Being 
advised by a sensible neighbor, they gave the sow 
ochre and milk, upon taking which she was for 
awhile well. But she ran mad again, getting into 
the street and so running and jumping as to 
frighten John and his wife, and people generally, 
but, having had her run and jump, "was well 
again." The conclusion of the testimony runs 
thus : " We," said Bly and wife, " did then appre- 
hend or judge, and do still, that said Bishop had 
bewitched said sow." 

William Stacey takes the stand and testifies 
that as he was "once on a time a-going to mill" 
he met Bridget Bishop. After some conversation 
they parted. "Then," says Stacey, "being gone 
about six rods from her, said Bishop, with a small 
load in his cart, suddenly the off-wheel slumped or 
sunk down on plain ground; that this deponent 
was forced to get some one to help him get the 
wheel out. Afterward this deponent went back 
to look for said hole where his wheel sunk in, but 
could not find any hole." 

Stacey had miserable luck when he met Bridget. 
He was, as he testified, passing, at another time, a 
brick kiln, when he met said Bishop. He had on 
a small load. The ground, just after passing her, 
was slightly ascending. But up the hill Stacey's 
horse could not budge. When lie attempted to do 



WITCH HILL. 201 

so, under his master's promptings, " all his gear 
and tackling flew to pieces, and the cart fell down." 

Stacey adds, " This deponent hath met with sev- 
eral other of her pranks at several times, which 
would take up great time to tell of." 

But he takes time to make the most serious 
charge of all. He says, in conclusion, though very 
vaguely for so grave a matter: "This deponent 
doth verily believe that said Bridget Bishop was 
instrumental to his daughter Priscilla's death. 
About two years ago the child was a likely thriv- 
ing child, and suddenly screeched out, and so 
continued in an unusual manner for about a fort- 
night, and so died in that lamentable manner." 

John Louder was a servant of Gedney, one of 
the judges on the bench of the special court. He 
was a neighbor to Mrs. Bishop when she lived in 
town. The servant then quarreled with her about 
her fowls, which had trespassed upon his master's 
premises. Just after the quarrel he had an awful 
experience. He says, "I, going to bed about the 
dead of the night, felt a great weight upon my 
heart, and, awaking, looked, and, it being bright 
moonlight, did clearly see said Bridget Bishop, or 
her likeness, sitting upon my stomach; and put- 
ting my arms off of the bed to free myself from 
the great oppression, she presently laid hold of 
my throat and almost choked me, and I had no 
strength or power in my hands to resist or help 
myself; and in this condition she held me till al- 
most day." 

Some days after this, Louder, not being well, 



202 WITCH HILL. 

remained at home on the Sabbath. Thus alone, 
the doors being shut, he "did see a black pig in 
the room coming toward him ;" attempting to give 
it a vigorous kick " it vanished away." 

It was very bad for Louder that he allowed a 
little illness to keep him from the house of God on 
the Sabbath, for only a short time after the black 
pig encounter he was at home again on that holy 
day. On this occasion a black thing jumped into 
the window and planted itself before his face. It 
had the body of a monkey, the feet of a cock, and 
the face of a man. John, in amazement and sore 
fright, sat trembling while the monster delivered 
its diabolical message. Among other flattering 
words it told him that if he would submit to its 
rule " he should want for nothing in this world." 
But Louder's resentment w^as aroused at this be- 
traying of the cloven foot, and, doubling his fist 
in the monster's face, he exclaimed, "You devil, 
I'll kill you!" The vigorous blow from Louder 
which followed this threat sent the specter out of 
the window. But it returned to him in the porch, 
though the doors were shut, and received for its 
pains a fierce assault with a stick from the valor- 
ous servant. The stick was broken by the violence 
of its concussion with the door-sill, and John's arm 
"disenabled." But the foe was not quite van- 
quished, though made to retreat. It took its stand 
not far from the door, and when Louder came out, 
" seemed to be a-going to fly at him." But John 
was game. He cried out, "The whole armor of 
God be between me and you." This was too much 



WITCH HILL. 203 

for the monster. " It sprang back, and flew over 
the apple-tree, flinging the dirt with its feet against 
the witness' stomach, and shook many apples from 
the tree as it flew over." 

The connection of all this with Bridget Bishop 
w r as established by the following very decisive 
evidence. As John went out of the porch, in fol- 
lowing the specter, he "espied Bridget Bishop in 
her orchard going toward her house." He was, 
moreover, unable for the moment to take a step 
forward ; and when he was struck by the dirt the 
specter threw against his stomach, he became dumb 
and remained so three days. 

Such was some of the original evidence before 
this special court. The girls are known to have 
been there. There was nothing new in their acting, 
but they may be presumed to have become greater 
adepts in it. The confessors declared that she had 
been their accomplice. The new judges were not 
a whit behind their predecessors in credulity. 
They heard, wondered, believed, and condemned. 
Bridget Bishop went out of the court-room under 
the sentence of death. A week later she was 
hanged on Witch Hill. 

The Court, having thus shown what might be 
expected of it, adjourned to the 30th of June. In 
the meantime the Governor and his council con- 
sulted the prominent ministers concerning the all- 
absorbing subject of witchcraft in Salem Village. 
This w^as an old practice under the colonial charter. 
"The several ministers consulted" returned an- 
swer, dated in Boston, June 15 1692. They ex- 



204 WITCH HILL. 

press deep sympathy for " our poor neighbors that 
are now suffering by molestation from the invisible 
world." They are thankful for the success a a 
merciful God has given to the sedulous and assidu- 
ous endeavors of our honorable rulers to defeat the 
abominable witchcrafts," and pray that the good 
work may be perfected. They declare it as their 
judgment "that, in the prosecution of these and 
all such witchcrafts, there is need of a very critical 
and exquisite caution, lest by too much credulity 
for things received only upon the devil's authority 
there be a door opened for a long train of miser- 
able consequences, and Satan get an advantage 
over us." They declare that all proceedings to- 
ward those that may be complained of u should 
be managed with exceeding tenderness, especially 
if they have been persons formerly of unblemished 
character." They disapproved of noise and open- 
ness in the examinations, and the admission of 
such tests against the suspected, "the lawfulness 
of which may be doubted by the people of God." 
" Evidence for committal, and, much more, for final 
condemnation," they say, "ought certainly to be 
more considerable than barely the accused person's 
being represented by a specter unto the afflicted; 
inasmuch as it is an undoubted and a notorious 
thing that a demon may, by God's permission, ap- 
pear, even to ill purposes, in the shape of an inno- 
cent, yea, and a virtuous man. Nor can we esteem 
alterations made in the sufferers, by a look or a 
touch of the accused, to be an infallible evidence 
of guilt, but frequently liable to be abused by the 



WITCH HILL. 205 

devil's legerdemain." They suggest that possibly 
the devils may have taken a remarkable affront at 
their disbelief of testimony whose whole credit is 
from the devils alone, and that this affront may 
put an end to the dreadful calamity of so many 
persons being accused. 

They close by saying, " Nevertheless, we cannot 
but humbly recommend unto the government the 
speedy and vigorous prosecution of such as have 
rendered themselves obnoxious, according to the 
directions given in the laws of God, and the whole- 
some statutes of the English nation, for the detec- 
tion of witchcrafts." 

The reader can but notice that the line of pro- 
ceeding marked out as the one of wisdom and 
equity by the ministers was in many particulars 
the opposite of that which their " honorable rulers" 
had pursued, from the very first to the last of the 
witchcraft trials at Salem Village and Salem. In- 
stead of "exquisite caution" there had been an 
apparent disregard of all caution. In the place 
of "exceeding tenderness" toward the accused, 
they had reserved all that kind of feeling for the 
accusers, even when the prisoners at the bar had 
been " persons formerly of an unblemished reputa- 
tion." The openness of the trials had invited the 
noise and the exposure of the suspected which the 
ministers deprecated. The specter evidence and 
alterations made in the sufferers by the look and 
touch of the accused, by which, they declared, an 
innocent person might be condemned, had been 
the staple evidence in all the trials, and in most 



206 WITCH HILL. 

of them absolutely all that had been brought 
forward. 

On what grounds, then, did the ministers see 
occasion for "thankfulness?" wherein was there 
proof that "success" had crowned the endeavors 
of the Court to detect witchcraft ? If the evidence 
had not been legal a just conviction had failed. 
But we shall better understand this part of the 
letter of the ministers in the final development of 
our narrative. 




CHAPTER XXI. 

fin UxtoicteD 'F^rlict* 

THE Court met again on Wednesday, June 29th. 
They were in no wise improved by the inter- 
mission. The whole air was tainted by the delu- 
sion, and they were not proof against its infection, 
if indeed their presence among the people did 
not give it extension and intensity. In the short 
space of three weeks five more matrons had suf- 
fered the death penalty on Witch Hill. Of the 
circumstances attending the trial and execution 
of three of them, Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth How, 
and Susanna Martin, we know nothing. The 
reader will recollect the kind bearing of Mrs. How 
at her trial for commitment, her tenderness toward 
even her Satanic accusers, her patience with the 
unjust Judges, and her Christian spirit through- 
out. Even with the gallows before her eyes we 
feel assured that her faith triumphed, and that she 
prayed for her enemies, with her dying Master, 
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do." 

We should not expect the same meekness from 
Susanna Martin. Her prayers were doubtless sin- 
cere and fervent, while at the same time her re- 
proofs were just and cutting. Though she could 



208 WITCH HILL. 

not silence the Judges, nor evade their terrible 
power, they could not overawe her free and fear- 
less spirit. 

Of the poor, suffering, demented Sarah Good, in 
her arraignment for the death sentence, we know 
a little. 

The afflicted acted against her as usual. One 
of them in coming out of a fit cried out in an 
agony that Good had cut her with a knife, and 
broken the blade in her flesh. Search was made, 
and a piece of the blade found on her person. 
Of this confirmation of her testimony the wonder- 
ing and credulous Court was informed. But a 
young man in the crowd courageously stepped 
forward and exposed the fraud. He showed the 
handle and the remaining part of the blade to 
which the piece belonged. He declared that he 
had broken it only the day before, and thrown 
the piece away in the presence of the accusing 
girl. The Court dismissed the noble and brave 
boy, told the girl not to lie, and coolly contin- 
ued to use her testimony against the lives of the 
prisoners. 

Mr. Noyes, whom we have met before, one of 
the scribes of the Court, and minister of Salem, 
followed small game when he pressed this woman 
with his assumptions on her examination. "You 
are a witch, and you know you are a witch," was 
his insolent declaration. The outrage provoked 
from the suffering victim, standing on the verge 
of eternity, the unbecoming reply, "You are a 
liar ; I am no more a witch than you are a wizard ; 



WITCH HILL. 209 

and if you take away my life, God will give you 
blood to drink." 

We have endeavored, in the preceding pages, to 
make the reader well acquainted with the Nurse 
family. We have followed Francis Nurse and his 
wife Rebecca through their noble and successful 
enterprise of becoming the owners of the Town- 
send Bishop estate. We, at one time, saw them 
in their honored mansion, with their sons and 
daughters settled on farms in the vicinity — ap- 
parently an intelligent, united, Christian family 
connection. A foe as relentless as death, and in- 
comparably more to be feared, entered the pa- 
rental home, blasted the fair name of the wife and 
mother, immured her in a cell, and loaded her with 
chains. She now comes forth to stand before a 
blinded Court, diabolical witnesses, and a jury 
perverted, not only by the frenzied people without, 
but by the judges appointed to give them wise 
counsel. The path from the jail, through the court, 
led only to Gallows Hill. 

We have spoken of the people as frenzied by 
the witchcraft storm, but before the pure character 
of this aged matron it had moments of partial 
cessation. Nathaniel Putnam, the second in years 
and now the oldest survivor of the three heads of 
the great Putnam family, dared to speak before 
Authority and a prejudiced crowd in her behalf. 
He testified that he had known her forty years, 
and that, "human frailties excepted, her life and 
conversation have been according to her profes- 
sion; and she hath brought up a great family of 



210 WITCH HILL. 

children and educated them well, so that there is 
in some of them apparent savor of godliness." 

This testimony of " Landlord Putnam" ought to 
have been the more influential, as he had, in their 
commencement, largely countenanced the witch- 
craft proceedings. It was the testimony of a man 
of wealth, advanced years, and of high standing in 
the Church and community at large. 

Another paper was drawn up, of similar import, 
and signed by thirty-nine persons of the Village 
and vicinity, all of marked prominence and known 
excellence of character. It contained the name of 
Jonathan Putnam, a son of the Lieutenant John, 
one of the signers of the complaint against Rebecca 
Nurse which caused her arrest. 

But the Court was deaf to these truthful words 
in behalf of the prisoner. They seemed to see 
only the suife rings of " the afflicted," and to hear 
only their wonderful ghostly stories. 

There was one method of detecting a witch 
which the Court adopted after the teachings of the 
witchcraft theory, to which we have before alluded. 
It taught that witches had teats on some parts of 
their bodies, by which they suckled their imps, 
thus imparting to them their own diabolical venom. 
A jury of the sex of the suspected person, attended 
by a surgeon, were appointed to search the nude 
body for these teats. It generally happened that 
their excited imaginations saw them in any hard- 
ened portion of the flesh which might protrude 
above the rest, or in any deformity resulting from 
sickness or age. The records frequently speak of 



WITCH HILL. 211 

these juries, and contain their returns. In George 
Jacob's case, such teat was found u within his 
mouth, upon the inside of his right cheek." A 
cunning hiding place ! Of the many outrages in 
these trials against the suspected, these indecent 
searchings were not the least. 

Just before being brought to trial, Rebecca Nurse 
was subjected to such examination by a jury of 
women, who, seeing with deluded eyes, found upon 
her the diabolical marks. Two days before the 
meeting of the Court, she addressed to the judges 
a touching remonstrance against this return of the 
female jurors. She states the fact that the most 
aged and skillful of their number dissented from 
their decision. She affirms that nothing can be 
found upon her person not common to women of 
her age and infirmities, and finally respectfully 
petitions for a new examination, suggesting the 
names, as a part of the jury, of several experienced 
and well-known mid wives. 

Her daughters, Mrs. Preston and Mrs. Tarbell, 
women who had long been heads of families, and 
of established good name, testify to their mother's 
freedom from the suspected marks. 

But all these words, expressing convictions of 
the innocence of the accused, were uttered to ad- 
ders' ears. The same ears were, however, very 
quick to hear the circle as they raved against her. 

Mary Walcot and Abigail Williams charged 
her with having committed several murders. They 
named the deceased Benjamin Houlten, John Har- 
wood, and Rebecca Shepard as among her victims; 



212 WITCH HILL. 

her sister Cloyse, they affirmed, assisting in their 
murder. 

Mr. Parris was an ever ready volunteer accuser. 
He testified that, a certain person being sick, 
Mercy Lewis was sent for. She was struck dumb 
on entering the sick chamber. She was bid hold 
up her hand if she saw any witch apparition upon 
the sick person. Presently she raises her hand 
and goes into a trance. Gradually she recovers 
her speech and begins to mutter, " Goody Nurse," 
and then " Goody Carrier." There they are, plain- 
ly visible to spectral eyes, grasping the head of 
the sick man. 

Of course, Mrs. Ann Putnam and her daughter 
Ann came down upon the poor prisoner with their 
terrific array of specters. The mother equaled 
her best efforts in the earlier trials. She describes 
in a glowing manner the "hellish temptations" 
and "dreadful tortures" she had of late suffered 
and was then suffering at the hands and by the 
presence of Rebecca Nurse. The " red book" 
and "black pen" are flourished with good effect. 
Troops of murdered men, women, and children, 
ghastly pale and in winding-sheets, are introduced 
at the proper time. The "free grace and mercy" 
of " Almighty God," in delivering her " out of the 
paws of those roaring lions and jaws of those tear- 
ing bears," have a devout recognition. 

Ann comes in and declares that the presence of 
Nurse at the fiendish business described by her 
mother was plainly seen by her. But Ann is no 
mere retailer in court of Avliat others say or saw, 



WITCH HILL. 213 

as is her Pastor, Mr. Parris. She has a special 
list of testimony, a little out of the common beaten 
track, and has, concerning it, a good indorser. 
While Rebecca Nurse was lying in the Salem jail 
carefully chained, Ann, being at the same time in 
the Village, was bitten by said Nurse. Her testi- 
mony on the point is very specific — it was "two 
of the clock of the day after her committal." 
Nurse did at the same time strike her with her 
spectral chain, and, in the course of half an hour, 
gave her six blows. One of the blows was espe- 
cially "remarkable." Deacon Edward Putnam, 
her uncle, testifies that he saw " the marks both of 
bite and chains." 

John Tarbell, son-in-law of Mrs. Nurse, and 
Samuel Nurse her son, went to Mrs. Ann Put- 
nam's, after the commitment of their mother, to 
cross-question her and the girls who might be 
there concerning the accusations against their 
mother. After much talk he was told that the 
girl said she saw the apparition of a pale-faced 
woman sitting in her mother's seat, but did not 
know her name. 

"Who was it that told her that it was Goody 
Nurse?" inquires Tarbell. 

"Mercy Lewis said it was Goody Nurse," says 
Mrs. Putnam. 

"No, Goody Putnam said it," replies Mercy. 

So they gave the lie to each other on this im- 
portant point. 

The results of this visit were sworn to in court 
by these competent and credible witnesses, but, 

14 



214 WITCH HILL. 

of course, they could not shake the faith of their 
worships in such matter-of-fact witnesses as Mrs. 
Ann Putnam and her daughter. 

Having thus profoundly considered the case, the 
Court give it to the jury. These twelve honest 
men, sworn to decide according to law and evi- 
dence, go out and weigh what has been said by 
their honors and the witnesses, and return a ver- 
dict of— "Not guilty!" 

It was like a bomb-shell bursting in a sleeping 
camp. The possessed accusers were instantly on 
the rampage. Those in the court set up " a hid- 
eous outcry," and those outside responded in uni- 
son. The spectators were filled with " amazement," 
and the Court was " strangely surprised." " One 
of the judges expressed himself not satisfied; an- 
other of them, as he was going off the bench, said 
they would have her indicted anew." 

But the Chief-Justice was master of the situa- 
tion, coolly remarking amid the uproar that "he 
would not impose on the jury." That might be 
the last feather which would break the back of the 
patience of outraged justice ; but he would inti- 
mate that " they had not well considered one ex- 
pression of the prisoner when she was upon trial, 
namely, that when one Hobbs, who had confessed 
herself to be a witch, was brought into court to 
witness against her, the prisoner, turning her head 
to her, said, ' What ! do you bring her ? She is 
one of us,' or words to that effect." 

The "intimations" of the Chief- Justice, thus ex- 
pressed, the murmurings of his colleagues on the 



WITCH HILL. 215 

bench, the threat of a new trial by one of them, 
the outcries of the bewitched, and the dissatisfac- 
tion of the crowd, prevailed. The jury went out 
to reconsider their verdict. But even now, under 
this enforced reconsideration, the case seems to 
have hung for some time in even scales in the 
minds of the jury. Their foreman, Thomas Fisk, 
being desired a few days after the trial, by some 
of the relatives, u to give a reason why the jury 
brought her in guilty after the verdict not guilty" 
gave the following explanation : " After the hon- 
ored Court had manifested their dissatisfaction of 
the verdict, several of the jury declared themselves 
desirous to go out again, and thereupon the Court 
gave leave ; but when we came to consider the 
case, I could not tell how to take her words as an 
evidence against her until she had a further oppor- 
tunity to put her sense upon them, if she would 
take it." 

This was certainly sensible and just in the fore- 
man to wish Mrs. Nurse to have an opportunity 
"to put her sense upon" the words which the 
Chief-Justice had seized to crowd the fatal verdict 
upon her. He returned, as he states, to the court- 
room and asks for such an explanation, the pris- 
oner sitting at the bar ; he adds, " she being then 
at the bar, but made no reply nor interpretation 
of them ; whereof these words were to me a princi- 
pal evidence against her." 

Fatal silence ! But why did not the prisoner 
give the desired explanation? She shall answer 
for herself. When told, after the verdict and 



216 WITCH HILL. 

death sentence, what use had been made of her 
words, she put in the following declaration : "These 
presents to humbly show to the honored Court and 
jury that I being informed, that the jury brought 
me in guilty upon my saying that Goodwife Hobbs 
and her daughter w T ere of our company ; but I in- 
tended no otherwise than that as they were pris- 
oners with us, and therefore did then, and yet do, 
judge them not legal evidence against their fellow- 
prisoners. And I, being something hard of hear- 
ing and full of grief, none informing me how the 
Court took up my words, and therefore I had no 
opportunity to declare what I intended when I 
said they were of our company." 

Touching words ! " I being something hard of 
hearing and full of grief!" One queries whether 
the Court knew that she was a little deaf, and 
whether they urged the question of the foreman 
upon her so as to certainly know whether she had 
any reply to make. Of one thing we are sure. 
The judges urged upon the prisoners all questions 
implying their guilt with a vehemence and per- 
sistency that fully met the requirements of deaf 
ears. Here was a question on which the death 
penalty was suspended, and the questioner was 
permitted to return to the jurors without the 
prisoner being made to hear it, though she was 
only "something hard of hearing." That she was 
"full of grief" might have prompted a little pains 
in her behalf had her case not been prejudged by 
the Court, and all sympathy bestowed upon the 
diabolical accusers. 



WITCH HILL. 217 

The jury came in with the solemn word " Guilty," 
and the sentence of death was not reluctantly 
pronounced by Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton, 
the Chief- Justice. Though the jurors did not hear 
her explanation, he and his associates did at a 
later moment, but it had no effect. 

But the aggravating features of the case of Re- 
becca Nurse to herself and friends were not yet 
all developed. Governor Phipps interposed his ex- 
ecutive clemency between her and the gallows. 
Forthwith the accusers " renewed their dismal out- 
cries against her." Some Salem gentlemen came 
forward to represent to his Excellency the demands 
of those who believed her a witch. 

Neal, in his history of New England, says there 
was in Salem, during the prevalence of the witch- 
craft furor, a Committee of Vigilance. They as- 
sumed the responsibility of hunting the witches, 
and advancing their prosecution. It is thought 
that this self-appointed committee of the public 
safety were the gentlemen who prevented the re- 
prieve of Rebecca Nurse. 

Thus, after imminent peril of life and alterna- 
tions of hope and fear, this excellent woman — good 
wife and mother and true Christian — was executed 
on Witch Hill. 

Scarcely less horrid than the hanging itself was 
the action of the Church to which she belonged, 
just after her conviction. It was, perhaps, but a 
sad consistency with their belief of her crime. 
The following is from the Church records : 

" 1692, July 3. After sacrament the elders pro- 



218 WITCH HILL. 

pounded to the Church — and it was by a unan- 
imous vote consented to — that our Sister Nurse, 
being a convicted witch by the Court, and con- 
demned to die, should be excommunicated ; which 
was accordingly done in the afternoon, she being 
present." 

Her cup of wrong at the hands of her fellow- 
men was full. 




CHAPTER XXII. 

THE Court reassembled on the 5th of August. 
They tried and condemned the following per- 
sons: George Burroughs, John Proctor and Eliza- 
beth his wife, George Jacobs, Sen., John Willard, 
and Martha Carrier. 

Our acquaintance with the Rev. Mr. Burroughs 
has become somewhat intimate. The wrongs he 
received in the settlement of his dues as the ex- 
Pastor of the Village Church ; his sudden arrest 
and violent removal from the bosom of his family 
to the jail in Salem; his mock trial but genuine 
imprisonment, are all fresh in our memories. There 
is but little more of earthly sorrow that his perse- 
cutors can impose, since his home has been de- 
stroyed and his fair name blasted. The narrative 
of this little more is brief. 

The following is a specimen of the spirit of his 
accusers and the Court which tried him, as well as 
the temper of the historian, Cotton Mather, who 
penned the lines: "It cost the Court a wonderful 
deal of trouble to hear the testimonies of the suf- 
ferers ; for when they were going to give in their 
depositions they would for a long while be taken 
with fits, that made them quite incapable of saying 



220 WITCH HILL. 

any thing. The Chief Judge asked the prisoner 
who he thought hindered these witnesses from 
giving their testimonies, and he answered he sup- 
posed it was the devil. The honorable person 
then replied, 'How comes the devil so loath to 
have any testimony borne against you?' which 
cast him into very great confusion." 

A modest, self-distrusting man, utterly confused 
by " the devil's legerdemain " enacted against him, 
had no sufficient answer in the judgment of the 
Court. "I know nothing of it; I am innocent," 
was an empty utterance to them. It w^as pursuing 
small game for their honors to cast upon their 
writhing victim, from their high place, a sneering 
perversion of the facts before them. 

We have seen that at the preliminary trial the 
Court entertained against Burroughs questions 
concerning the baptism of his children, and his at- 
tendance at the Lord's Supper. They now in- 
quired into his domestic relations. One Hannah 
Harris, a young woman who lived in Ins family at 
one time, testified that when she and Mrs. Bur- 
roughs had any discourse together in his absence, 
when he came home he scolded his wife, telling 
her that he knew what they said when he was 
abroad. She further testified to a scolding he 
gave his wife when her babe was but a week old, 
keeping her "at the door till she fell sick in the 
place and grew worse at night so that the said 
Hannah thought she would die." 

Burroughs' wife's brother swore that he came 
home at one time and, finding him and his sister 



WITCH HILL. 221 

together, "fell to chiding his wife for talking to 
her brother about him, saying that he knew their 
thoughts, which the brother said was more than 
the devil knew ; to which Burroughs replied that 
Ids God told him." 

We may, in justice to the prisoner, remember 
that there was no one to cross-question these wit- 
nesses, and that, if they perverted Burroughs' words 
as much as the Chief- Justice did those spoken by 
Rebecca Nurse to her fellow-prisoners, we are ig- 
norant of the just rendering of what he did say. 

Witnesses were brought forward to prove that 
Burroughs had shown at sundry times supernatu- 
ral strength. It was declared that he held out a 
gun, with seven feet barrel, " with only putting the 
forefinger of his right hand into the muzzle; that 
he had carried a barrel full of cider from a canoe to 
the shore." "An Indian present at the time did 
the same," answered the prisoner. The circle re- 
plied, " It was the Black Man, or the devil, who 
looks like an Indian." Some men swore that they 
passed Burroughs on one occasion, some consider- 
able distance from home, they being on horseback 
and he afoot; and that they rode rapidly, but 
when they arrived he was there. He replied, "An- 
other man accompanied me." 

"It was the devil using the appearance of an- 
other man," shouted the girls. 

Mr. Burroughs was, of course, brought in 
"guilty." He was hanged on Witch Hill. 

John Proctor, too, we have previously seen. A 
neighbor to Giles Corey, he had at times allowed 



222 WITCH HILL. 

himself, we think, to judge the old man unjustly. 
But Proctor, as will be proved below, was a true 
man. His judgment was generally sound, and his 
contempt for the witchcraft acting of the girls had 
been expressed in his sharp manner. He had pro- 
posed to whip the devil out of Mary Warren, his 
servant girl. 

The Rev. Mr. Wise of Ipswich, a man of learn- 
ing and prominence, drew up an able paper in 
Proctor's behalf. Proctor had been brought up in 
his parish, and his family connections were there. 
The paper was signed by Mr. Wise and thirty-one 
others, all of Ipswich. It was addressed, in behalf 
of John Proctor and his wife, to " The honorable 
court of assistants now sitting: in Boston." After 
more genera] remarks they declare : " What God 
may have left them to, we cannot go into God's 
pavilion clothed with clouds of darkness round 
about ; but as to what we have ever seen or heard 
of them, upon our conscience we judge them inno- 
cent of the crime objected. His breeding hath 
been amongst us, and was of religious parents in 
our place, and by reason of relations and proper- 
ties within our town, hath had constant intercourse 
with us. We speak upon our personal acquaint- 
ance and observation ; and so leave our neighbors, 
and this our testimony on their behalf, to the wise 
thoughts of your honors." 

Mr. Proctor's immediate neighbors of Salem 
Village signed a paper of similar import, testify- 
ing that, in their apprehension, " they lived Christ- 
like in their family." 



WITCH HILL. 223 

In addition to these favorable words, it was 
diown in court that one of the witnesses had de- 
nied out of the court what she had sworn to before 
their honors, declaring that she must at the time 
have been "out of her head," and that she had 
never intended to accuse the prisoners at the bar. 

Another of the girls acknowledged that she had 
sworn falsely; that what the girls said was "for 
sport ; " " they must have some sport." 

The sentence of death was passed upon John 
Proctor and his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. Two 
weeks before his execution on Witch Hill, while 
in prison at Salem, he wrote the letter addressed 
to " Mr. Mather, Mr. Allen, Mr. Moody, Mr. Wil- 
lard, and Mr. Bailey." They were distinguished 
ministers of Boston. He writes in behalf of him- 
self and fellow-prisoners, some of whom join him 
in signing the paper. He implores their assistance 
concerning " this our humble petition to his Excel- 
lency." He forcibly declares that nothing will 
satisfy the enmity of their accusers, and of the 
judges and jurors, but their innocent blood. He 
affirms that the magistrates, ministers, jurors, and 
all the people in general, are incensed against 
them " by the delusion of the devil." He makes a 
most telling point of the fact that the confessing 
witches who had testified against them had been 
most cruelly tortured into their confessions, and 
that his own son had been ineffectually abused to 
extort the same kind of lying. He truly adds, 
" These actions are very like the popish cruelties." 
He closes by begging that they may have a trial 



224 WITCH HILL. 

at Boston; and, if that cannot be granted, that 
the magistrates then on the bench be removed and 
others put in their place, and that some of the 
assistants be present at the trial. 

This letter is respectful and well put. It has the 
pungent force of truth uttered without flattering 
circumlocution. But all availed nothing. 

Two weeks after the execution of Proctor his 
condemned wife received to her bosom their new 
born child. An angel of mercy it was truly to 
the mother. Its coming postponed her execution, 
carrying the appointed day into a time when a 
voice had bidden the waves of passion be still, and 
she escaped the halter. 

George Jacobs, Sen., bending with the weight 
of eighty-one years, supported by two crutches, 
next passes before us. We remember his un- 
shrinking bearing and honest words on his former 
trial ; his answer when told the girls charged him 
with being a witch, " Let them prove it, and I stand 
under it;" his appeal to the record of a thirty- 
three years' residence in Salem ; and his solemn 
appeal to God in attestation of innocence. He had 
made his will before the witchcraft proceedings 
began. He was tried, condemned, and sentenced 
to die on the gallows. His only son, being ac- 
cused of the same crime, had fled for his life to a 
foreign country. This son's insane wife was in 
prison under the same accusations, her little chil- 
dren being thrown upon the charity of the world; 
while her oldest daughter, Margaret, was an en- 
forced confessor, bearing such testimony against 



WITCH HILL. 225 

all the family as was put into her mouth. We 
shall meet this Margaret again. In view of all 
this, as he lay in prison, one week before his death, 
the old man caused another will to be written. 
He gave his estates to his son George, and secured 
them to his male descendants. We shall be in- 
terested to visit his homestead, and make the ac- 
quaintance of the male descendant now owning 
and living in it. 

Having thus calmly arranged his earthly busi- 
ness, we trust the wronged old man looked by 
faith in a crucified Redeemer for mercy from God, 
in whose presence he was soon to appear. 

John Willard we shall recollect in connection 
with the strange sufferings of " old Bray Wilkins" 
on a certain election day, when the old man and 
his wife went to Boston and Dorchester, and met, 
at the latter place, the suspected Willard. The 
death of Wilkins' grandson will be remembered 
too — the boy who warned his father not to go to 
Boston with Willard, and who afterward died at 
the said Willard's hands, if the circle girls saw and 
testified truly. Willard was hanged for this. At 
his trial one of the possessed testified that she had 
seen him " suckle the apparition of two black pigs 
on his breast ; and that he told them on the occa- 
sion that he had been a witch twenty years." 
Willard, having thus acted and testified before our 
veracious witnesses, "kneeled with other wizards, 
in prayer, to the black man, with a long crowned 
hat, and then vanished away." 

Susanna Shelden first arrayed in ghastly proces- 



226 WITCH HILL. 

sion the apparitions of murdered men, women, and 
children against Willard. But she brought into 
court a few " shining ones," most happily for the 
reader, who has seen so many "black men" and 
people "in winding sheets." "A shining man," 
most beautiful to behold, came and charged her 
with a message to the magistrates against Willard. 
This the witness declared that she could not do 
unless the shining one should " hunt Willard 
away," who was then choking her and threatening 
to cut her throat if she went. At this the shining 
one raises his hand, Willard vanishes, and the 
obedient messenger lives to deliver the message. 

We cannot help suspecting that this " shining 
one" was the same old "black man" whom we 
have so often seen, as we know, on good author- 
ity, that he is sometimes "transformed into an 
angel of light." Susanna was undoubtedly im- 
posed upon. 

The four we have just noticed, namely, George 
Burroughs, John Proctor, George Jacobs, Sen., 
John Willard, with Martin Carrier, of whom w T e 
have no further information, were executed on the 
19th of August. 

On the 9th of September the Court met again 
and another installment was brought forward. Six 
persons at this time were tried and condemned. 
On the 17th following nine more received the 
same sentence. We shall detain the reader with a 
notice of only two of them, both old acquaintances, 
namely, Martha Corey and Mary Easty. 

Mrs. Easty, it may be remembered, was a sister 



WITCH HILL. 227 

of Rebecca Nurse, and Mrs. Corey, the wife of the 
notorious Giles Corey. 

Mrs. Corey retained to the very last her self- 
reliance, her rejection of her deluded spiritual 
counsellors, and her trust in the Saviour whom she 
had consistently served. 

The day after her sentence to death, the Church 
of the Village excommunicated her. Nathaniel 
Putnam, the two deacons, Ingersoll and Edward 
Putnam, were appointed a committee, in connec- 
tion with their Pastor, to convey to her in Salem 
prison this decision of her brethren and sisters. 
They declare, or rather Mr. Parris, the Pastor, en- 
ters on the Church records, that they found her 
"very obstinate, justifying herself, and condemn- 
ing all who had done any thing to her just dis- 
covery or condemnation. Whereupon, after a little 
discourse, (for her imperiousness would not suffer 
much,) and after prayer — which she was willing to 
decline — the dreadful sentence of excommunication 
was pronounced against her." 

Calef says that "Martha Corey, protesting her 
innocency, concluded her life by an eminent prayer 
upon the ladder." 

Mary Easty was imprisoned with her younger 
sister, Sarah Cloyse. While thus awaiting trial, 
these sisters addressed jointly a letter to the 
Special Court. They make the following points : 
First, as they were not allowed counsel, nor the 
privilege of speaking in their own defense, they 
beg the judges to direct them as they may have 
need — a reasonable but vain request. Secondly, 



228 WITCH HILL. 

as they, before God, declare their innocence of 
witchcraft or any scandalous act, they petition that 
those persons of good report who have long and 
well known them may be permitted to testify 
raider oath concerning their lives. Thirdly, that 
the testimony of witches, or such as are supposed 
to be afflicted by witches, should not be used 
against them, u without other legal evidence con- 
curring." Their closing words are solemnly signif- 
icant: "We hope the honored Court and jury will 
be so tender of the lives of such as we are, who 
have lived for many years under the unblemished 
reputation of Christianity, as not to condemn them 
without a fair and equal hearing of what may be 
said for as well as against us." 

For the judges to have granted their request 
under the third head, for a rejection of witchcraft 
testimonies when not accompanied by other legal 
evidence, would have been to acknowledge that all 
they had done was deeply criminal ; and to have 
granted every thing else asked, when denying this, 
would have made the gift valueless. We do not 
know what the ministers did in response to this 
reasonable appeal, but we know that the Court a 
few days after brought Mrs. Easty to trial in the 
usual arbitrary, unjust way, and condemned her 
to death. Her sister, for some reason unknown, 
was never tried, and finally returned to her family. 

Mrs. Easty, while awaiting the execution of her 
sentence, wrote to the Court and ministers a letter 
in behalf of her fellow-prisoners. She declares that 
she has learned to judge charitably of those await- 



WITCH HILL. 229 

ing trial by her own experience u of the wiles and 
subtilty of the accusers." She reminds them that 
she was cried ont against, tried and imprisoned for 
a month, and then dismissed from custody, and 

that then the accusers renewed the outcries which 

• 

had brought the fatal sentence. She nobly says, 
" The Lord above knew my innocency then, and 
likewise does now, as at the great day will be 
known to men and angels. I petition to your 
honors not for my own life, for I know I must 
die." She then plainly tells the judges that by 
her own innocence she knows that they are in 
the wrong way. She begs them to examine the 
afflicted persons strictly, and to keep them apart 
some time; and to try the confessing witches 
whom she knew had belied themselves. She adds, 
" I beg your honors not to deny this my humble 
petition from a poor, dying, innocent person." 

God and not the Judges duly regarded these her 
dying words. 

Nineteen persons had thus far suffered on Witch 
Hill — one in June, five in July, five in August, and 
eight in September. The prisons were yet full, the 
accusers as audacious and defiant as ever, and the 
Court unfaltering in its bloody course. But three 
days before the last executions a deed was done 
which was to rebound with destructive effect upon 
the heads of the accusers and judges. It was a 
deed of terrible persistency on the part of both 
oppressors and their victim. 

15 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

GILES COREY has been frequently before the 
reader. He can now never be forgotten. 

His situation while lying in jail awaiting a trial 
which he knew, if submitted to, would result in 
certain death, was very painful. He had, at first, 
added fuel to the witchcraft fire. His wife had, 
in some measure, suffered by the deposition he had 
allowed her enemies to extort from him. Crosby 
and Parker, two of his sons-in-law, following his 
bad example, had thrown their influence against 
her. And, most of all, his brief Christian life 
failed to give him that full measure of support 
which Rebecca Nurse and others derived from 
mature Christian graces. But great strength of 
purpose was yet remaining ; whether prompted by 
a Christian faith, we leave the reader to judge. 

Pie first drew up a conveyance of all his worldly 
estates and goods to his sons-in-law, William 
Cleeves and John Moulten, who had remained 
true to his wife and the right. This being duly 
signed, witnessed, and recorded, he settled down 
into his terrible resolution. He made up his mind 
not to plead when called into court, and thus to 
evade a trial. In this case his deed of conveyance 



WITCH HILL. 281 

would stand ; otherwise, he was sure to be hanged, 
and his property to be taken by the State. He 
resolved to abide the consequences of refusing to 
plead, and such a death awaited him as few ever 
suffered. 

Longfellow puts the following beautiful words 
into his mouth, which, we doubt not, are true to 
his spirit : 

" Now I have done with earth and all its cares ; 
I give my worldly goods to my dear children ; 
My body I bequeath to my tormentors, 
And my immortal soul to Him who made it. 
God ! who in thy wisdom doth afflict me 
With an affliction greater than most men 
Have ever yet endured or shall endure, 
Suffer me not in this last bitter hour 
For my pains of death to fall from thee ! " 

The poet introduces into the scene an old sailor 
by the name of Gardner, a friend of Corey's, who, 
just returned from sea, visits Corey's forsaken 
home. He describes a desolation that was but too 
real : 

"Here stands the house as I remember it, 
The four tall poplar trees before the door ; 
The house, the barn, the orchard, and the well, 
With its moss-covered bucket and its trough ; 
The garden with its hedge of currant bushes ; 
The woods, the harvest fields; and, far beyond, 
The pleasant landscape stretching to the sea. 
But every thing is silent and deserted! 
No bleat of flocks, no bellowing of herds, 
No sound of flails, that should be beating now; 
Nor man, nor beast astir. What can this mean ? 

[Knocks at the door — 



232 WITCH HILL. 

What ho ! Giles Corey ! Hillo-ho ! Giles Corey ! 
No answer but the echo from the barn, 
And the ill-omened cawing of the crow, 
That yonder wings his flight across the fields, 
As if he scented carrion in the air. 

"How often out at sea on stormy nights, 

When the waves thundered round me, and the wind 

Bellowed and beat the canvas, and my ship 

Clove through the solid darkness like a wedge, 

I've thought of him, upon his pleasant farm, 

Living in quiet with his thrifty housewife, 

And envied him, and wished his fate were mine ! 

And now I find him shipwrecked utterly, 

Drifting upon this sea of sorceries, 

And lost, perhaps beyond all aid of man." 

Corey is supposed to have known what the old 
English law inflicted upon those who refused to 
answer when brought into court, and the question 
was put by the Judge, " Guilty or not guilty." It 
was to be laid upon his back, and a weight put 
upon his breast, increased at intervals while the 
question was repeated, until, if silence was per- 
sisted in, the life was crushed out. In the lan- 
guage of the law, " A strong and great pain " 
[peine forte et dure) was inflicted. While await- 
ing this dread issue Gardner visits him in prison : 

Corey. I am glad to see you, aye, right glad to see you. 
Gardner. And I most sorely grieved to see you thus. 
Corey. Of all the friends I had in happier days, 

You are the first, aye, and the only one, 

That comes to seek me out in my disgrace! 

And you but come in time to say farewell. 

They've dug my grave already in the field. 

I thank you. There is something in your presence, 



WITCH HILL. 233 

I know not what it is, that gives me strength. 
Perhaps it is the bearing of a man 
Familiar with all dangers of the deep, 
Familiar with the cries of drowning men, 
With fire, and wreck, and founderiDg ships at sea ! 
Gardner. Ah, I have never known a wreck like yours! 

Would I could save you ! 
Corey. Do not speak of that. 

It is too late. I am resolved to die. 
Gardner. Why would you die who have so much to live for ? 

Your daughters, and — 
Corey. Tou cannot say the word. 

My daughters have gone from me. They are married ; 

They have their homes, their thoughts, apart from me ; 

I will not say their hearts — that were too cruel. 

What would you have me do? 
Gardner. Confess and live. 
Corey. That's what they said who came here yesterday 

To lay a heavy weight upon my conscience, 

By telling me that I was driven forth 

As an unworthy member of their Church. 
Gardner. It is an awful death ! 
Corey. 'Tis but to drown, 

And have the weight of all the seas upon you. 
Gardner. Say something; say enough to fend off death 

Till this tornado of fanaticism 

Blows itself out. Let me come in between you 

And your severer self with my plain sense; 

Do not be obstinate. 
Corey. I will not plead. 

If I deny, I am condemned already 

In courts where ghosts appear as witnesses, 

And swear men's lives away. If I confess, 

Then I confess a lie to buy a life 

Which is not life, but only death in life. 

I will not bear false witness against any, 

Nor even against myself whom I count last. 
Gardner, (aside.) Ah, what a noble characcer is this! 



234 WITCH HILL. 

Corey. I pray you do not urge me to do that 
You would not do yourself. I have already 
The bitter taste of death upon my lips ; 
I feel the pressure of the heavy weight 
That will crush out my life within this hour ; 
But if a word could save me, and that word 
Were not the Truth ; nay, if it did but swerve 
A hair's-breadth from the Truth, I would not say it! 

Gardner, (aside.) How mean I feel beside a man like this ! 

Corey. As for my wife, my Martha and my Martyr, — 
Whose virtues, like the stars, unseen by day, 
Though numberless, do but await the dark 
To manifest themselves unto all eyes, — 
She was the first won me from my evil ways, 
And taught me how to live by her example, 
By her example teaches me to die, 
And leads me onward to the better life I " 

The place and precise circumstances attending 
the execution by slow crushing of Giles Corey are 
not known. Tradition has designated an open 
field near the jail in Salem as the place. As to 
the facts attending this shocking act in the tragedy, 
we know that Corey's lips were closed to the bit- 
ter end, and that the authorities, equally persistent, 
relented not. 

The poet has charitably put into Cotton Math- 
er's lips, as he looks upon the disfigured corpse, 
lying in the field with the weight still upon it, the 
following prophetic words: 

" sight most horrible ! In a land like this, 
Spangled with Churches evangelical, 
Inwrapped in our salvations, must we seek 
In mokiering statute-books of English courts 
Some old forgotten law to do such deeds? 
Those who lie buried in the Potter's Field 



WITCH HILL. 235 

Will rise again, as surely as ourselves 
Tbat sleep in honored graves with epitaphs ; 
And this poor man, whom we have made a victim, 
Hereafter will be counted as a martyr." 

The day after the death of Corey, one of the 
judges in Salem received a letter from Sergeant 
Thomas Putnam. It declared tbat the night be- 
fore his daughter Ann was nearly pressed to death 
by a specter tormentor, but, " through the goodness 
of a gracious God, she had, at last, a little respite." 
During this respite one appeared to her " in a 
winding-sheet," declaring that Giles Corey had 
pressed him to death with his feet ; and that for 
this acceptable deed the devil had promised Giles 
he should not be hanged — a promise that he had 
fulfilled in leading him not to plead. 

What comfort the Court obtained from this 
piece of information we do not know. But the 
reader will be glad to be informed that it was the 
last vision of the tragedy. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

®1k ®qle£w5©m of it Ik Stcciigjeitt* 

THE Court, after the execution of Corey, hurried 
off to the gallows the eight persons of whom 
we have spoken, including Mary Easty and Martha 
Corey, and then adjourned. They were to re- 
assemble on the first Tuesday of November ; but 
they never met again. His Excellency, Governor 
Phipps, put his foot down and the Court went under. 
There were to be no more ghosts in Court, playing 
bloody pranks at the expense of the lives of some 
of the best citizens of the province. We breathe 
freer. We can now calmly study the disposal of 
the contending forces, review the manner and 
spirit of the conflict, examine sadly the battle-field, 
and note the calmer feelings of those who have 
been conspicuous in the fight. We may then visit 
the localities made memorable in its history. 

The reader can but have noticed that one main 
element of power on the part of the prosecutors 
was the confessions of the accused. They used 
them with terrible potency against the condemned. 
Next to the apparent tortures, and wonderful 
visions of the circle, they were the material which 
fed the witchcraft flames among the people. 
Brattle says, after other evidence against the ac- 



WITCH HILL. 237 

cused began to be questioned, "The great cry of 
many of his neighbors was, ( What ! will you 
not believe the confessors ? Will you not believe 
men and women who confess they have signed the 
devil's book, that they were baptized by the 
devil, and that they were at the mock-sacraments 
once and again ? What ! will you not believe that 
this is witchcraft, and that such and such men are 
witches, although the confessors do own and 
assert it ? " 

If any of the readers of this history have the 
same queries to propose, the answer to them will 
be found in the following pages of this chapter. 

Six of the confessors of Andover gave, over 
their signatures, the history and character of their 
confessions. They will serve as a key to most 
others. A paper accompanied it, signed by fifty 
of their fellow-citizens, in which they speak of " the 
sober, godly, exemplary conversation " of these 
retracting confessors. 

The confessors state in general terms the cir- 
cumstances of the visit of the two circle girls at 
Andover, their accusations, their confirming fits, 
and alterations by the looks and touch of the ac- 
cused. They then say: "Whereupon we were all 
seized as prisoners, by a warrant from the justice 
of the peace, and forthwith carried to Salem ; and 
by reason of that sudden surprisal, we knowing 
ourselves altogether innocent of that crime, we 
were all exceedingly astonished and amazed, and 
consternated, and affrighted, even out of our rea- 
son ; and our nearest and dearest relations, seeing 



238 WITCH HILL. 

us in that dreadful condition, and knowing our 
great danger, apprehended there was no other way 
to save our lives, as the case was then circum- 
stanced, but by our confessing ourselves to be such 
and such persons as the afflicted represented us to 
be. They out of tenderness and pity persuaded us 
to confess what we did confess. And, indeed, that 
confession that it is said that we made was no 
other than what was suggested to us by some gen- 
tlemen, they telling us that we were witches, and 
they knew it, which made us think it was so ; and 
our understandings, our reason, our faculties al- 
most gone, we were not capable of judging of our 
condition. The hard measures they used with us 
rendering us incapable of making our defense, we 
said any thing and every thing which they desired. 
The most of what we said was but consenting to 
what they said. Some time after, when we were 
better composed, they telling us what we had con- 
fessed, we did profess that we were ignorant of 
such things ; and we hearing that Samuel Ward- 
well had confessed and renounced his confession, 
and was quickly after condemned and executed, 
some of us were told we were going after Ward- 
well." 

Of two of these six persons giving the above 
statement, Mary Osgood and Mary Tyler, we have 
some further account. 

Mary Osgood's confessions of her witch character 
had been very minute, containing dates, places, 
circumstances of a specific character, and the 
names of confederates. It was just such a con- 



WITCH HILL. 239 

fession as was claimed at the time, by the friends 
of the prosecution, as one bearing on its face the 
stamp of truthfulness. But we may go behind the 
curtain and hear these confessors cross-questioned. 
In October, after, it will be recollected, the ter- 
mination of the Special Court, Increase Mather 
came to Salem and conversed in prison with the 
confessing witches. Here is what Mrs. Osgood 
had to say : 

" Being asked why she prefixed a time and spoke 
of being baptized, etc., about twelve years ago, 
she replied and said that when she owned a thing 
they asked the time, to which she answered that 
she knew not the time. But, being told that she 
did know the time, and must tell the time, and the 
like, she considered that about twelve years before 
(when she had her last child) she had a fit of sick- 
ness and was melancholy, and so thought that 
that time would be as proper a time to mention 
as any, and accordingly did prefix the said time. 
Being asked about the cat in the shape of which 
she had confessed the devil had appeared to her, 
etc., she replied that, being told that the devil had 
appeared to her, etc., (she being a witch,) she at 
length did own the devil had appeared to her; 
and, being pressed to say in what creature's shape 
he appeared, she at length did say it was in the 
shape of a cat. Remembering that, some time 
before her being apprehended, as she went out of 
her door she saw a cat; not that she any whit 
suspected the said cat to be the devil, in the 
day of it, but because some creature she must 



240 WITCH HILL. 

mention, and this came into her mind at that 
time." 

The statement of Mrs. Tyler in reference to her 
confession, made also to Dr. Increase Mather, con- 
tains facts equally remarkable. She says that, 
while under arrest and on her way from Andover 
to Salem jail, she was attended by her brother 
Bridges. As they rode together "he kept telling 
her all along the way that she must needs be a 
witch since the afflicted accused her, and at her 
touch were raised out of their fits." He therefore 
urged her to confess. She, however, steadfastly 
resisted his entreaties, saying she knew nothing of 
witchcraft, and finally begged him to desist from 
his teasing. " However, when she came to Salem 
she was carried to a room ; her brother on one side, 
and Mr. John Emerson on the other, did tell her 
that she was certainly a witch, and that she saw 
the devil before her eyes at that time ; and, accord- 
ingly, Emerson would attempt with his hand to 
beat him away from her eyes; and they so urged 
her to confess that she wished herself in any dun- 
geon rather than be so treated. Mr. Emerson told 
her once and again, c Well, I see you will not con- 
fess! Well, I will now leave you; and then you 
are undone, body and soul forever.' " 

Her brother constantly joined Emerson in the 
appeals, adding, " Sister, confess ; you will not lie 
in so doing." To which she touchingly replied, 
" Good brother, do not say so ; for I shall lie if I 
confess, and then who shall answer unto God for 
my lie?" The brother argued that God would 



WITCH HILL. 241' 

not suffer so many good men to be in error about 
this matter, adding the consideration, which was, 
no doubt, in his mind quite decisive, "You will be 
hanged if you do not confess." 

This method of extorting a confession from her 
was continued by the well-intending brother and 
his friend until their victim breaks down, utterly 
exhausted in body and mind. She says, " I thought 
my life would go from me, and I became £0 terri- 
fied at length that I owned any thing propounded." 

Having reached this point, the friends had only 
to put in the usual recitals about devil sacraments, 
trips through the air on sticks, tortures inflicted 
on the accusers, naming associates, times, and places, 
so that the whole would pass the profound scrutiny 
of their worships, and save Mrs. Tyler's neck from 
the halter. 

Dr. Mather adds : " This she said, and a great 
deal more of a like nature ; and all with such 
affection, sorrow, relenting, grief, and mourning, 
as that it exceeds any pen to describe and express 
the same." 

The reader will recollect the case of George 
Jacobs, the infirm old man of eighty-one years, who 
had been hanged, with others, on the 19th of 
August. His son George had fled to escape the 
outcries of the circle girls. His granddaughter 
Margaret, under the pressure of her distracting 
circumstances, as she too was accused, had con- 
fessed, and turned against others, including her 
grandfather. She, however, retracted her confession 
in a most pathetic appeal to the Special Court, 



■24:2 WITCH HILL. 

After speaking of her arrest, and her terror at the 
fits of the girls and their recovery from them at 
her look and touch, and the positive declarations 
that were made to her that she was a witch, she 
adds: "They told me if I would not confess 1 
should be put down into the dungeon and would 
be hanged ; but if I would confess I should have 
my life. The which did so affright me, with my 
own vile, wicked heart, to save my life, made me 
make the like confession I did; which, may it 
please the honored Court, is altogether false and 
untrue. The very first night after I. had made 
confession I was in such horror of conscience that 
I could not sleep for fear the devil should carry 
me away for telling such horrid lies. I was, may 
it please the honored Court, sworn to my con- 
fession, as I understand since ; but then, at that 
time, was ignorant of it, not knowing what an oath 
did mean. The Lord, I hope, in whom I trust, out 
of the abundance of his mercy will forgive me 
my false forswearing of myself. What I said was 
altogether false against my grandfather and Mr. 
Burroughs, which I did to save my life and have 
my liberty. But the Lord, charging it to my con- 
science, made me in so much horror that I could 
not contain myself before I had denied my con- 
fession, which I did, though I saw nothing but 
death before me — choosing rather death with 
a quiet conscience than to live in such horror 
which I could not suffer. Upon my denying 
my confession I was committed to close prison, 
where I have enjoyed more felicity in spirit, 



WITCH HILL. 243 

a thousand times, than I did before my enlarge- 
ment." 

The day after the execution of her grandfather, 
Margaret wrote to her father, "from the dungeon 
in Salem prison," an affectionate letter. It is of 
the same import as the above. She relates the 
horror of feeling she had experienced after the con- 
fession " made through the magistrates' threaten- 
ings," and the peace of mind at her recantation, 
though she regarded her death on the gallows as 
certain and near. In her closing lines she says, 
" Dear father, let me beg your prayers to the Lord 
on my behalf, and send us a joyful and happy 
meeting in heaven." 

It is pleasant to know that Margaret's temporary 
illness caused her trial to be postponed. While 
she waited its arrival, knowing that a trial meant 
condemnation and death, the Court itself was con- 
demned, and she escaped. 

The worthless character of the confessions ap- 
pears in still another form. Sarah Churchill, the 
servant-girl of George Jacobs, who had played a 
bitter part as an accuser against her master and 
others, had moments of relentings. In these she 
shows the true source of her confessions of witch- 
craft. Just after, as it is believed, the old gentle- 
man's commitment, the following deposition was 
made concerning her by Sarah Ingersoll : " Seeing 
Sarah Churchill after her examination, she came 
to me crying and wringing her bands, seeming to 
be much troubled in spirit. I asked her what she 
ailed ? She answered she had undone herself. I 



2-±4 WITCH HILL. 

asked her in what ? She said in belying herself 
and others in saying she had set her hand to the 
devil's book, whereas, she said, she never did. I 
told her I believed she had set her hand to the 
book. She answered, crying, and said, 'No, no, 
no ; I never, I never did !' I asked her then what 
made her say she did? She answered because 
they threatened her, and told her they would put 
her into the dungeon, and put her along with 
Mr. Burroughs. Thus several times she followed 
me up and down, telling me that she had undone 
herself in belying herself and others. I asked her 
why she did not deny she wrote it. She told me 
because she had stood out so long in it that now 
she durst not. She said also that if she told Mr, 
Noyes but once she had set her hand to the book 
he would believe her ; but if she told the truth and 
said she had not set her hand to the book a hun- 
dred times he would not believe her." 

The chapter on Confessions discloses the fact 
that, while very excellent persons of position and 
character failed to get a patient hearing in favor 
of the accused, the magistrates were willing to 
accept testimony from very humble confessors. 
They arrested a low woman by the name of Carrier, 
taking four of her children into confinement with 
her. When brought into court one of them, a 
child eight years of age, confessed being a witch, 
charging her mother with the crime of compelling 
her to siffn the book. The Court carried her 
through the larger part of the witchcraft cate- 
chism, the questions of which she answered in the 



WITCH HILL. 245 

approved manner. Another child of Carrier was 
put upon the stand and by leading questions made 
to accuse herself, a brother, and her mother. 

It is not strange that the wretched mother, evi- 
dently without Christian meekness, should have 
been provoked to resentment, when placed upon 
her own examination. The magistrate, as usual, 
assumed her guilt. She denied it. A circle girl 
said she then had the black man upon whom she 
looked. "What black man did you see?" asks 
the Judge. "I saw no black man but your own 
presence," was the sharp reply. But she trifled 
with her own life. Martha Carrier was hanged. 

A poor, ignorant negro slave by the name of 
Candy was, in another case, put through the usual 
questions, to which she readily gave the desired 
answers. The following will serve as a specimen : 

" Candy, are you a witch ?" 

" Candy no witch in her country. Candy's 
mother no witch. Candy no witch Barbadoes. 
This country mistress give Candy witch." 

This intelligent witness was " improved" against 
her mistress. 

The most painful fact connected with the con- 
fessing witches remains to be told. Some of them 
were tortured into confession. John Proctor, while 
lying in jail, wrote a letter to the leading ministers 
in Boston, begging their good offices with the 
Governor in his own and his fellow-sufferers' behalf. 
He said there were five persons in jail with him 
who had confessed themselves to be witches. He 
said two of the five were Carrier's sons, and that 

16 



246 WITCH HILL. 

they were tied "neck and heels, till the blood was 
ready to come out of their noses;" and that on 
this account they confessed what they never did, 
accusing falsely also their mother. 

Proctor further said that when his son William 
was being examined he refused to confess, and that 
consequently he was " tied neck and heels until the 
blood gushed out of his nose ; " and that he was 
told he would be so tortured twenty-four hours if 
he did not confess. The young man, however, 
persisted, and, through the interference of one of 
his tormentors, be was relieved. 

We are not told by whose authority these tor- 
tures were applied. In the absence of any explicit 
declaration we would believe them done by irre- 
sponsible parties. They fit well the historical char- 
acter of the "Vigilance Committee" of which Neal 
speaks. Gentlemen composing these self-appointed 
custodians of the public safety are not wont to 
have bowels of compassion. We have seen a softer 
kind of torture offered by the teasings of mistaken 
friends, and the overbearing, protracted, and oft- 
repeated examinations of the judges. 

Thomas Brattle, a rich merchant, whose name 
has been perpetuated by one of the streets in Bos- 
ton, witnessed the doings of the Special Court. 
We have his account of the witchcraft proceedings 
in the fifth volume of the " Massachusetts Histori- 
cal Society" publications. He says, speaking of 
the confessors : " Some of them denied their guilt 
and maintained their innocency for above eighteen 
hours, after most violent, distracting, and dragoon- 



WITCH HILL. 247 

in«; methods had been used with them to make 
them confess." He declares, further, that more 
than one of the confessors has said with many- 
tears "that they thought their lives would have 
gone out of their bodies, and wished they might 
have been cast into the lowest dungeon rather 
than be tortured with such repeated buzzings, and 
chuckings, and unreasonable urgings as they were 
treated withal." 

Brattle again refers to the subject, saying that 
"the confessors do very often contradict them- 
selves;" "even the judges themselves have, at 
some times, taken these confessors in flat lies or 
contradictions even in the courts ; by reason of 
which one would have thought that the judges 
would have frowned upon the said confessors, dis- 
carded them, and not minded one tittle of any 
thing they said ; but, instead thereof, as sure as 
we are men, the judges vindicate the confessors 
and salve their contradictions by proclaiming that 
the devil takes away their memory and imposes 
upon their brain." 

Brattle conclusively argues that if even in the 
judges' estimation the devil imposes upon the 
brains of these confessors no man of sense will 
regard their confessions. 

It is a fact worthy of note that out of the fifty- 
five confessors none, except those who recanted 
their confessions, were hanged. 

Of the confessors who did not recant, or of whose 
recantations no record is preserved, Brattle says : 
"They are possessed, I reckon, with the devil, and 



248 WITCH HILL. 

afflicted as the children are, and therefore not to 
be regarded as to any thing they say of themselves 
or others." 

Having thus been behind the scenes with the 
confessors, observing their distracted state of mind 
under the bewildering circumstances in which 
they were placed, and witnessing the methods 
used which wearied out their bodily and physical 
strength, besides the tortures applied to the bodies 
of some, we shall have no difficulty in disposing 
of their testimony. 




g)^®> 




* 



CHAPTER XXV. 

©lie &olla}P0e* 

¥E have seen that the Special Court, which 
dispensed terror and death during its short 
existence, dissolved suddenly ; and that the fury 
of the witchcraft conflict subsided at the same time. 
There were deeply interesting causes for these re- 
sults, into which we shall briefly look. 

Governor Phipps alludes to his agency in the dis- 
missal of the Court in a letter to the Home Govern- 
ment. He says : " I was, almost the whole time 
of the proceedings, abroad in the service of their 
majesties in the eastern part of the country, and 
depended upon the judgment of the Court as to a 
method of proceeding in cases of witchcraft ; but 
when I came home I found many persons in a 
strange ferment of dissatisfaction, which was in- 
creased by some hot spirits which blew up the 
flame ; but on inquiry into the matter I found the 
devil had taken upon him the name and shape of 
several persons who were doubtless innocent, and, 
to my certain knowledge, of good reputation." 

The use, then, which had been made of the 
specter testimony had stirred up "a strange fer- 
ment." A sharp controversy had been going on 
in the province on this matter from the beginning 



250 WITCH HILL. 

of the prosecutions, which had increased in bold- 
ness on the part of specter opposers, so that, when 
the Governor returned, about the middle of Octo- 
ber, 1692, from his war with the Indians on the 
coast of Maine, there was a buzzing about his ears. 
He was greatly moved by what he heard. When 
fenrs were expressed by old friends concerning the 
fall of the Special Court, he repeated with empha- 
sis, " Let it fall." He went further. He adds, in 
his letter to the Home Minister : " I have also put 
a stop to the printing of any discourses one way or 
the other that may increase the needless disputes 
of people upon this occasion, because I saw a like- 
lihood of kindling an inextinguishable flame if I 
should admit any public or open contests." 

The Legislature convened October 26. It had 
in it a reactionary element. Some of its members 
had personally suffered by the pestilential breath 
of the circle girls ; more had been wounded through 
condemned or accused friends. Dudley Bradstreet, 
son of Governor Bradstreet, was a member from 
Andover. He and his wife had been obliged to fly 
to save their lives. A member from Haverhill was 
connected with a family three of whose members 
had been brought to the bar of the Court. A 
member from Salisbury was son-in-law of Mary 
Bradbury, on whom the death sentence had been 
passed. These and many others were at the seat 
of government with a defiant spirit of opposition. 

Brattle speaks of the wide-spread opposition 
which was showing itself. Writing in October, lie 
says: a This you may take for a truth, that there 



WITCH HILL. 251 

are several about the Bay, men for understanding, 
judgment, and piety inferior to few if any in New 
England, that do utterly condemn the said pro- 
ceedings, and do freely deliver their judgment in 
the case to be this, namely, that these methods 
will utterly ruin and undo poor New England. 
I shall nominate some to you, namely, the Hon. 
Simon Bradstreet, Esq., our late Governor, the 
Hon. Thomas Danforth, late Deputy Governor, the 
Rev. Mr. Increase Mather, and the Rev. Samuel 
Willard." 

He further says that, excepting Mr. Hale, Mr. 
Noyes and Mr. Parris, " the reverend elders al- 
most throughout the whole country are very much 
dissatisfied." One judge, he says, had left the 
Court " dissatisfied," being unwilling to have any 
official connection with it. Many, both of the re- 
tired and active justices in the Province, were 
showing their hands in opposition. Some of those 
holding positions as magistrates in Boston were 
threatening to resign rather than to be used as 
tools of the accusing girls. 

We take great satisfaction in this uprising of 
such numbers of the people, judges, clergy, and 
men of position in the State, to arrest at this 
point the destroying angel of witchcraft. Had it 
developed during the earlier legal investigation so 
as to have prevented the existence of the death- 
dealing Special Court, our satisfaction would have 
been deeper. 

There was a reason for dissatisfaction on the 
pa t of some, at the proceedings in Salem, worthy 



252 WITCH HILL. 

of special note. We must charitably believe it 
was only one among many reasons of a more disin- 
terested nature. The accusers, prompted no doubt 
in part by their great success, had attained to a 
profound contempt for excellence of character 
and prominence of position in those at whom they 
chose to aim their poisoned arrows. The wife of 
Governor Phipps had been struck by one. The 
Rev. Samuel Willard of Boston was selected as a 
victim — the arrow being placed in the string and 
brought to the sight ; but it was struck from the 
bow by one of the judges, who told the accusing 
girl she had mistaken the person. A mother-in- 
law of one of the acting magistrates ; a member 
of the family of the President of Harvard College ; 
the wife of the Rev. Mr. Hale of Beverly ; a ven- 
erable minister in Andover ; all felt the far-reach- 
ing powder of their shafts. They were becoming 
as relentless as the destroying angel sent by God 
against Egypt, and they promised that there 
should not be a home nor a family in which there 
should not be an exceeding bitter cry for one slain 
— even from the Governor's mansion to the lowest 
cabin of the poor. It was esteemed no doubt by 
the judges a solemn duty to sit in judgment on 
the value of the accusers' testimony, and to give 
it weight against the prisoners; but to be the 
victims of their accusations was another thing. 
Mr. Hale did not maliciously, but only blindly act 
when he aided by his great influence to give wings 
to their words ; but when they flew into the sacred 
enclosure of his own home and struck his wife. 



WITCH HILL. 253 

who had been eminent for her purity of heart and 
usefulness of life, the scales fell from his eyes. 

There were parties every- where, it may be pre- 
sumed, like the Jews in Queen Esther's day, who 
were ready, when the arm of persecution faltered, 
to assail their assailants. The Andover people 
were especially plucky at this crisis. They obtained 
warrants and proceeded to arrest the accusers for 
slander. These " pests " soon found that there was 
more " sport " in smiting than in being smitten. 
They at once ceased to accuse. They cried for 
quarter and withdrew from the contest. But they 
had no reason to complain, though their occupa- 
tion was gone. Their "amazing fits" ceased. All 
torturing and affrighting ghosts vanished into thin 
air. " When the spectral testimony was discred- 
ited the afflictions of the afflicted ceased" is a 
declaration that comes to us in substance from 
both their friends and their enemies. 

Bently says : " Witchcraft soon proved itself to 
be an error to be corrected in the public opinion 
and not in courts of justice. ... As soon as the 
judges ceased to condemn, the people ceased to 
accuse. Just as after a storm, the people were 
astonished to see the light break out on them again. 
Terror at the violence and guilt of the proceed- 
ings succeeded instantly to the conviction of blind 
zeal, and what every one had encouraged all pro- 
fessed to abhor. Few dared to blame other men, 
because few were innocent. They who w^ere most 
active remembered that they had applauded. The 
guilt and the shame became the portion of the 



25-i WITCH HILL. 

country, while Salem had the infamy of being the 
place of the transaction." 

We may now walk over the battle-field and 
mark the track along which the conflict raged. 
Twenty had been slain ; two besides had died in 
prison. The good name of many excellent people 
had been for the time blasted. A husband and 
wife had accused each other; parents had acknowl- 
edged their children bewitched, and children had 
sworn away, in distraction and terror, the lives of 
their parents. Of course many homes, where be- 
fore peace and joy had dwelt, were filled with 
discord and wretchedness. Confidence, the bond 
of union, had been broken, and distrust had taken 
its place. The enemy whom bolts and solid walls 
could not keep from the dwelling was feared more 
than the open, defiant foe; and with reason, for 
the former smote in the dark. To the children 
especially the day as well as the night was 
made hideous by frightful sights and sounds witli 
which their distempered imaginations filled every 
place. 

A less but no small evil was the loss, to a great 
extent, of the means of a comfortable subsistence. 
A spring, summer, and fall had been struck from 
the year. The hand of industry had been para- 
lyzed. No harvest had been gathered, because no 
seed had been planted. Trade had stagnated or 
was turned from its customary channels, and busi- 
ness in general received a shock from which it was 
slow in recovering. Taxes, which before were 
esteemed heavy, were greatly increased. The ae- 



WITCH HILL 255 

cused were plundered by the government to pay 
in part the extraordinary expense attending their 
examinations. A few facts will show how this was 
done. John Proctor, writing to some of the min- 
isters of Boston from his prison, says, " They have 
already undone us in our estates." 

The old man George Jacobs had received the 
death sentence, but this was not enough : " The 
sheriff and officers came and seized all he had ; his 
wife had her wedding-ring taken from her, but, 
with great difficulty, obtained it again. She was 
forced to buy provisions of the sheriff, such as he 
had taken, toward her support, which, not being 
sufficient, the neighbors in charity relieved her." 

His son, George Jacobs, Jun., who fled to save 
his life, whose wife and daughter were imprisoned 
at a cost to him " of twelve pounds in money to 
the officers, besides other charges," and whose 
property was utterly destroyed, at a later period 
returned an inventory of what the sheriff took 
from the parental homestead. It runs thus : " Five 
cows, fair large cattle ; eight loads of English hay 
taken out of the barn ; twelve barrels of cider ; 
sixty bushels of Indian corn ; a mare ; five swine ; 
two feather-beds, furniture, rugs, blankets, sheets, 
bolsters and pillows ; two brass kettles ; twelve 
shillings in money ; a large gold thumb ring ; a 
quantity of pewter ; besides an abundance of small 
things — meat in the house, fowls, chairs, etc. — took 
clear away." 

Many such bills w T ere afterward presented to the 
government. 



256 WITCH HILL. 

But there is a more painful feature of this legal- 
ized plundering. Persons arrested were compelled 
to pay all charges of every kind. Their board, 
fuel, clothes, traveling expenses to their place of 
imprisonment and from jail to jail when removed, 
all came in to swell the ruinous expense levied 
upon their estates or friends. Nor was this all. 
Fees were required at every turn — a fee to the 
clerk of the court, a fee for a reprieve, a fee for a 
discharge, and even a fee to the hangman ! One 
man paid two pounds and ten shillings to get the 
body of his mother who died in prison. 

Added to these demands of the law was the loss 
in some cases to the prosecuted from the unre- 
strained freedom of the mob. " As soon as Phillip 
English was apprehended, his house was opened 
and every thing movable became free plunder to 
the multitude." 

It is not strange that the accounts speak of " a 
diminished population," and of " shadows cast 
over a broad surface, darkening the condition of 
generations." 

Notwithstanding the witchcraft conflict had been 
so disastrous to the whole community, and its de- 
feat in the fall of the Special Court so marked, the 
prosecuting party showed for awhile faint efforts 
of life. 

The regular court, called the Superior Court, 
was held in Salem in January, 1693. Lieutenant- 
Governor Stoughton was Chief-Justice. Specter 
evidence was forbidden. Calef says, "At these 
trials some of the jury made inquiry of the Court 



WITCH HILL. 257 

what account they ought to make of the specter 
evidence, and received for answer — c As much as 
of chips in toort ! ' " 

Though the ghosts were ordered out of the court, 
the Grand Jury indicted fifty persons for witchcraft, 
twenty of whom were tried, and three condemned. 
It is thought the Court made free use of the con- 
fessors in finding even these guilty. In the subse- 
quent sessions, which continued until May, the trials 
uniformly resulted in acquittals; at this time the 
plucky Governor came down upon the proceedings 
again, and by proclamation opened all the prison 
doors to the alleged witches, setting free not only 
the suspected but even those under the sentence 
of death. It was a wonderful jail-delivery ! One 
hundred and fifty were set at liberty at this time — 
at least such of them as could pay their jail bills. 
How many were arrested in all is not certainly 
known ; it must have been several hundred. 

But we may not fully understand the effects of 
this wild witchcraft ferment unless we scrutinize 
them somewhat in detail. This we shall attempt 
to do in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

IradiNiRtg ©£ tlK ®nalg art Ufftfailtiowg. 

¥E have spoken of the desolated track of the 
delusion. We have noticed its annoying, 
often ruinous effects upon those committed to pris- 
on, though not condemned. As in a wreck by a 
storm at sea, or a collision of railroad cars, there are 
not only the aggregate and individual losses which 
belong to the history of such events, but interest- 
ing personal incidents ; so in the witchcraft storm 
and consequent catastrophe. We shall present a 
few of them in illustration of our story. 

Some of those committed to prison who had in- 
fluential friends, or that special friend, wealth, 
were allowed, under bonds, a private custody. 
William Hobbs, whose trial we have noticed, was 
bailed out by two of his neighbors. When the 
day of his trial arrived they did not think his ap- 
pearance at the Court safe, so they generously paid 
the bond — two hundred pounds. This undoubt- 
edly saved his life. At the session of the Superior 
Court in May of the next year, the specters hav- 
ing disappeared, Hobbs appeared, was discharged, 
and the money of his friends returned by the 
officials. 

The reader will recollect the case of Captain 



WITCH HILL. 259 

John Alden of the provincial navy, whose personal 
account of the rough handling he received by the 
circle we have given. He escaped from the Bos- 
ton jail in the middle of September, when con- 
demnations were being made in large installments, 
and the danger was imminent. He fled to Dux- 
bury and was secreted by his friends. He made his 
appearance among them late at night. They were 
alarmed at his sudden and untimely presence, and 
asked an explanation. He replied, "I am flying 
from the devil and the devil is after me." He too 
reported in person to the Court when it had re- 
covered its senses, and was discharged. 

If there was energy manifested in this and many 
other cases in flying from the accusers, there was, 
as we have seen, a hot haste often on the part of 
the prosecuting party. This is further illustrated 
by the following statements in reference to the 
arrest of Mary Easty. It will be recollected that 
she had been arrested and committed to prison. 
For some reason she was soon after set at liberty. 
As soon as she was again in the bosom of her now 
happy family, and while their tears of joy still 
moistened their faces, the girls opened upon her 
their most destructive enginery, intensified in power 
by their wrath at her escape. 

On the 20th of May Mercy Lewis, being at the 
house of John Putnam, had fits, and experienced 
tortures not exceeded, if we may credit the accounts, 
in the agony suffered or the peril of life experi- 
enced, by any which were endured in the whole of 
that eventful period of Satan's unchaining. Her 



260 WITCH HILL. 

tormentor flaunted a winding-sheet in her face, 
brought chains and coiled them about her tender 
neck with witch brutality ; choked and crushed 
her until life faintly and feebly lingered in its 
earthly casket. Ann Putnam was sent for to see 
who hurt Mercy. Ann came, accompanied by 
Abigail Williams. This was in the forenoon of 
May 20th. The messenger had traveled a mile 
and a quarter. He was started again for Mary 
Walcot, another ride of three miles. Miss Walcot 
hurried along, of course, and had scarcely given 
her opinion when away the messenger flew for 
Elizabeth Hubbard, another three miles. Evening 
came on, and with it neighbors and friends from 
far and near hurried to the spot, gathered by 
rumors of the more than death agonies of Mercy 
Lewis. The girls with one voice shrieked, Mary 
JEasty ! They clearly saw her and her accom- 
plices torturing Mercy. So plainly did they de- 
scribe each Satanic act of the witches, and so 
vividly did they portray the form and spirit of 
their coming with " book," " winding-sheet," and 
a chain," that the pitying spectators seemed to hear 
and see. It was eight o'clock. Messengers go to 
the Town for a warrant against Mary Easty, and 
return. Another eight miles has been traveled. 
Armed with this fatal authority, Marshal Herrick, 
a young man of knightly bearing and fiery zeal, 
spurs on his panting horse until he reins up at 
Isaac Easty's in Topsfield. His wife, Mary, is torn 
from her bed and distracted family, and Herrick, 
at midnight, is again at the bedside of poor, sutler- 



WITCH HILL. 261 

ing, and, as he fears, dying Mercy Lewis. Another 
six miles has been accomplished. While the dark- 
ness so fitting to the transaction still rests upon 
the forest through which she has ridden, Mrs. Easty 
is lying, chained, in a dungeon of Salem jail. At 
midnight sleeping in unsuspecting security under 
her own roof, surrounded with her family ; now at 
least seven miles away, and treated as the worst 
of criminals. Her husband, referring to the trans- 
action twenty years afterward forcibly exclaimed, 
u It was a hellish molestation." 

The husband of Elizabeth How was blind. They 
had two daughters, Mary and Abigail. When the 
wife and mother was under arrest, one of them ac- 
companied their father tw^ice a week to visit their 
mother, and to bear to her within her gloomy cell 
the assurances of their abiding love. Their house 
was off the public road ; the distance considerable, 
and the exposure to annoyances by the w T ay from 
excited and bewildered travelers very great. But 
their affection knew no obstacles. They exhausted 
their humble means in relieving her necessities. 
When she was condemned to die, one of them 
traveled to Boston and begged in vain for her life. 
As we have seen, she was hanged, but her last 
moments were blessed by these tokens of love, and 
by their declaration that their "honored mother 
was as innocent of the crime charged as any per- 
son in the world." 

There is a touching story of the heroism of a 
young man in behalf of his mother. He succeeded 
in securing her escape from jail, and secreted her 

17 



262 WITCH HILL. 

in the woods. Not daring to trust her sacred per- 
son in any known habitation during the raging of 
the witchcraft storm, he built for her a wigwam in 
the depth of the forest. One of her limbs w r as 
injured in her efforts to clear the prison wall, yet 
here he fed, nursed, and watched her until the dan- 
ger had passed away. 

In noticing the incidents of the conflict, we 
should do great injustice to the subject if we did 
not present those concerning the sufferers in prison 
and the victims on the gallows. Manly and Chris- 
tian fortitude have seldom in the history of the 
world been put to a severer test than by the treat- 
ment these persons received. The sudden surprisal 
of some of them by the officers of the law, in the 
midst of their quiet and happy homes ; the strange 
nature of the charge against them; the arbitrary 
methods and cruel spirit of the Court ; the plun- 
dering of their goods, and the imposing upon them 
the expenses of their arrest and imprisonment ; the 
crowded, poorly furnished, and scantily provisioned 
condition of the jails ; the virtuous and depraved 
made companions in suffering — all these facts 
made an accumulated weight upon body and mind 
which no common fortitude could sustain. 

There was to some, perhaps, one consideration 
more crushing than all besides. It was this : Their 
consciousness of innocence and their personal 
views of the evidence of their guilt were in con- 
flict. They would, as readily as any of the Court, 
have condemned others on the proof of guilt 
brought against themselves. They believed in all 



WITCH HILL. 263 

that the Court believed, and only had what the 
Court could not have, a consciousness of innocence. 
The Rev. Mr. Burroughs, whose case in many re- 
spects was harder than that of any other, seems to 
have been in just this perplexity. The exhibitions 
against him were to his mind " an amazing provi- 
dence." He knew nothing of it. He declared that 
he did not blame the judges. He was cut off from 
every outward support. He turned for strength 
and comfort in the dark hour to God "who only 
giveth songs in the night." 

The destitute, suffering condition of those im- 
prisoned is referred to in an address of seven citi- 
zens of Andover to the General Court, concerning 
their wives and children, praying that they might 
be released on bonds, " to remain as prisoners in 
their own houses, where they may be more ten- 
derly cared for." They speak of them as, " A com- 
pany of poor distressed creatures, as full of inward 
grief and trouble as they are able to bear up in life 
withal." They refer to their want of proper food 
and sufficient shelter from the cold, "which may 
dispatch such out of the way that have not been 
used to such hardships." They also speak feel- 
ingly of the ruinous demands made for the support 
of these prisoners upon their families. 

But we need not pursue this painful part of our 
history further. This much is due to these suf- 
ferers, that the Christian patience with which the 
most of them endured their wrongs, and the joy they 
experienced at the proclamation which opened their 
prison doors, may be appreciated by the reader. 



264: WITCH HILL. 

The incidents connected with those who suffered 
the death penalty demand attention, and will be 
found of peculiar interest. Brattle, who was pres- 
ent in Salem during the trial and execution of at 
least some of them, thus speaks of their last mo- 
ments: "As to the late executions, I shall only 
tell you that, in the opinion of many unprejudiced, 
considerate, and considerable spectators, some of 
the condemned went out of the world not only 
with as great protestations, but also with as good 
shows of innocency, as men could do. 

" They protested their innocency as in the pres- 
ence of the great God, whom forthwith they were 
to appear before ; they wished, and declared their 
wish, that their blood might be the last innocent 
blood shed upon that account. With great affec- 
tion they entreated C. M. (Cotton Mather) to pray 
with them. They prayed that God would discover 
what witchcrafts were among us; they forgave 
their accusers ; they spake without reflection upon 
jury and judges for bringing them in guilty and 
condemning them ; they prayed earnestly for par- 
don for all otJier sins and for an interest in the 
precious blood of our dear Redeemer, and seemed 
to be very sincere and upright, and sensible of 
their circumstances on all accounts; especially 
Proctor and Willard, whose management of them- 
selves from the jail to the gallows, and whilst at 
the gallows, was very affecting and melting to the 
hearts of some considerable spectators whoni I 
could mention." 

The words and spirit of Burroughs in his last 



WITCH HILL. 265 

moments were eminently Christ-like. He made a 
speech upon the ladder of the gallows in which he 
declared his innocence. The solemnity and seri- 
ousness of his expressions excited the admiration 
of all present. His prayer was uttered with such 
well-chosen words, composure, and fervency of 
spirit, that the spectators were melted to tears, and 
some of them seemed ready to hinder his execu- 
tion. Most fittingly his last words were those of 
the Lord's Prayer. 

The accusing girls, following their victim to the 
very last moment of his mortal life, were moved to 
jealousy by this evidence of his innocence. They 
tried to break its force by saying that the Black 
Man stood and dictated to him. 

The parting interview of Sarah Easty with her 
husband, children, and friends, was characterized 
by Christian dignity and affection. Her words 
and sweetness of spirit drew tears from all who 
were present. 

The persons executed were carried in a cart from 
the jail to Witch Hill. The eight executed in 
September made one load. The distance was con- 
siderable, as we shall see when we visit the locali- 
ties, and, no doubt, the roads rough and the ascent 
of the hill difficult. It is not surprising that the 
cart was for some time " set," aggravating the 
painfulness of their situation. 

The bodies of the executed seem to have been 
buried by the Sheriff on or near the place of execu- 
tion. Sheriff Corwin, in his official return in the 
case of Bridget Bishop, which has been preserved, 



266 WITCH HILL. 

after stating the fact of having hanged her, adds, 
"and buried her on the spot," but drew his pen 
across the words, as if the statement were not neces- 
sary to the return. Declarations were made in 
print a few years after, of the bad treatment the 
bodies received at the hands of those charged with 
carrying into effect the sentence of the law; and 
tradition preserves the stories of the stealthy re- 
covery of some of the bodies by their friends. We 
know that there was a fearful kind of insanity pos- 
sessing at the time the minds of the people, includ- 
ing those in authority, concerning what was due 
a witch, whether living or dead. It was this that 
developed so many strange and painful incidents, 
with which our story is illustrated. 




CHAPTER XXVII. 

¥E have endeavored to describe the ruin pro- 
duced by the witchcraft furor, illustrating it 
by incidents of personal experiences. Faint in- 
deed has been our portrayal of what can never be 
fully apprehended. But the sad scenes and bitter 
griefs which have come to our notice naturally 
prompt the inquiry, Who were responsible? We 
may not in truth write, as reporters often do of 
collisions on the public thoroughfares by cars and 
by steamers, "Nobody was to blame." We lose 
the benefits of the moral lesson of great public 
calamities unless we candidly and carefully note 
individual responsibility for their occurrence. 

Yet the inquiry in this case is both delicate and 
difficult. We will not affect to hold a plummet 
equal to its mysterious depth. But we may pre- 
sent some facts which will aid the reader to a 
judgment concerning the moral relations of the 
principal actors, to the final consequences. 

The ministers of the province, especially those 
of Salem, Boston, and their vicinities, appear prom- 
inently among these actors. It is not easy to give 
their true position, but we shall endeavor to do it 
with painstaking and candor. 



268 WITCH HILL. 

We have presented, in connection "with the ac- 
count of the Special Court, the substance of a let- 
ter to the authorities signed by twelve prominent 
ministers, in which their judgment is stated of the 
method which ought to be adopted in the legal 
proceedings. We refer the reader to that account.* 
They advised that "very critical and exquisite 
caution" be used in the admission of spectral evi- 
dence. Cotton Mather, who wrote the letter above 
noticed, and who claims to have held opinions on 
this point in common with his clerical brethren, 
says, in a letter to one of the judges, written in 
March, 1692, about the commencement of the ex- 
aminations, " I must humbly beg you, in the man- 
agement of the affair in your most worthy hands, 
you do not lay more stress upon pure specter testi- 
mony than it will bear." He further says that if 
there be "good legal evidence" that the specters 
of accused persons torment the afflicted, it may be 
used as presumptive, but not convicting proof of 
guilt. He declares it certain that devils have 
sometimes assumed the shape not only of innocent, 
but very virtuous persons. 

Dr. Increase Mather, then President of Harvard 
College, wrote and published about the time of the 
witchcraft trials, " Cases of conscience concerning 
evil spirits personating men, etc." It bore the in- 
dorsement of fourteen ministers of Boston and 
vicinity. Of the afflicted persons he says: "What 
they affirm concerning others is not to be taken 
for evidence. Whence had they this supernatural 

* Page 203. 



WITCH HILL. 269 

sight? It must be either from heaven or from 
hell. If from heaven, let their testimony be re- 
ceived. But if they had this knowledge from hell, 
though there may possibly be truth in what they 
affirm, they are not legal witnesses ; for the law of 
God allows of no revelation from any other spirit 
but himself, Isaiah viii, 19. It is a sin against 
God to make use of the devil's help to know that 
which cannot be otherwise known; and I testify 
against it as a great transgression which may justly 
provoke the Holy One of Israel to let loose devils 
on the whole land, Luke iv, 38." 

He says again : " The first case that I am 
desired to express my judgment in is this, 
Whether it is not possible for the devil to impose 
on the imaginations of persons bewitched, and 
cause them to believe that an innocent, yea, that 
a pious person does torment them, when the 
devil himself does it ; or whether Satan mny not 
appear in the shape of an innocent and pious, 
as well as of a hurtful and wricked person, 
to afflict such as suffer by diabolical moles- 
tations. The answer to the question must be 
affirmative." 

A person of some prominence in Boston, having 
a sick child, carried it to Salem to the circle girls, 
to see what they would say of its disease. They, 
of course, saw specters of certain persons whom 
they named, afflicting it. The father returned 
home and attempted to get warrants to arrest the 
persons represented. President Mather interfered 
and reproved him sharply. "What!" said he, "is 



270 WITCH HILL. 

there not a God in Boston, that you should go to 
the devil in Salem for advice?" 

We have given, in our chapter on " Strange 
Things," the history of Elizabeth Knapp of Groton, 
whose case the Rev. Mr. Willard managed and 
cured without the aid of courts. 

In 1692 he published a tract with this title: 
" Some Miscellaneous Observations on our present 
Debates respecting Witchcraft."* In it we have 
Mr. Willard's opinions concerning the right method 
of trying witches, as opposed to that of the Judges. 
He argues that for conviction there must be, first, 
a fact done and proved ; second, indubitable evi- 
dence that the fact proves the crime charged ; 
third, a clear legal proof that the accused did the 
fact. By "legal proof" he means, first, a confes- 
sion of one not frightened nor forced into it, and 
in his " right mind ; " second, the testimony of two 
human witnesses to the same fact. By a human 
witness he means one who obtains his knowledge 
by " the natural use of his senses." 

He argues that the afflicted are not competent 
witnesses because "they are possessed;" because 
they cannot give a full and clear testimony to 
the face of the prisoner " as required by law and 
reason;" because the alleged smiting down of 
the accusers by the accused, by their looks and mo- 
tions, is more than can be proved; because the 
judges themselves allow that the devils sometimes 

* This tract has been very scarce, and known only to anti- 
quaries. It was published entire in the July number of the 
"Congregational Quarterly," 1869. 



WITCH HILL. 271 

take away the memory of the afflicted, so dis- 
qualifying them to speak; and, finally, because 
their testimony is not human, and so not legal. 
He pointedly declares that the judges must believe 
that all that are accused are witches, or that the 
afflicted either lie or are deluded. 

The ministers generally believed that " prayer 
is the powerful and effectual remedy against the 
malicious practices of devils and those that cove- 
nant with them." We have seen that at the com- 
mencement of the witchcrafts of Salem Village 
the ministers of the vicinity met at Mr. Parris' 
house for fasting and prayer in behalf of the 
afflicted. Cotton Mather declared that "prayer 
and faith was the thing which drew the devil from 
the Goodwin children ; " and he recommends it in 
his letter to Judge Richards. Referring in his 
"Magnolia" to the witchcraft uprising at Salem, 
he says : " In fine, the country was in a dreadful 
ferment, and wise men foresaw a long train of dis- 
mal and bloody consequences. Hereupon they first 
advised that the afflicted might be kept asunder in 
the closest privacy ; and one particular person, 
(whom I have cause to know,) in pursuance of this 
advice, offered himself, singly, to provide accom- 
modations for any six of them, that so the success 
of more than ordinary power of prayer and fasting 
might, with patience, be experienced, before any 
other courses were taken." 

We learn elsewhere that he, Cotton Mather, 
was that " one particular person," and we sup- 
pose he refers to the ministers as the " wise 



272 WITCH HILL. 

men " who " foresaw the dismal and bloody con- 
sequences." 

We have dwelt thus in detail upon the " specter 
testimony," because the whole question of responsi- 
bility turned upon its use. With it and by it the 
witchcraft angel of death spread his wings on the 
blast. When it became of no more value than 
" chips in wort " the death angel disappeared. 

We shall now show how the above-stated 
opinions of the clergy on this vital point were 
qualified by other statements, and by their appli- 
cation of it — or, at least, the application of it by 
some of them — to the occurring trials. 

The reader will have noticed that the ministers 
uniformly insisted upon " critical and exquisite 
caution " in handling specter testimony, and never 
demanded a prohibition of its use. Mr. Wil- 
lard came near making this demand; he utterly 
disallowed it except as an inquiry in cases of per- 
sons of previous bad life. Dr. Increase Mather, in 
immediate connection with his declaration that to 
convict a witch on spectral evidence is a "great 
transgression," says : "The devil's accusations may 
be so far regarded as to cause an inquiry into the 
truth of things." His son, Cotton Mather, when 
referring to the " odd effects " produced by the 
looks and touch of the accused upon the accusers, 
speaks of them as " things wherein the devils may 
as much impose upon some h armless people as by 
the representation of their shapes;" yet, in de- 
scribing these "odd effects" as occurring in the 
trials, he speaks of them in graphic language as 



WITCH HILL. 273 

matters of fact. The following is an illustration : 
" When many of the accused came upon their 
examination, it was found that the demons, who 
had more than a thousand ways abusing of the poor 
afflicted people, had with a marvelous exactness 
represented them ; yea, it was found that many of 
the accused but casting their eyes upon the af- 
flicted, the afflicted, though their faces were never 
so much another way, would fall down and lie in a 
sort of swoon, wherein they would continue, what- 
ever hands were laid upon them, until the hands 
of the accused came to touch them, and then they 
w r ould revive immediately; and it was found that 
various kinds of natural actions done by many of 
the accused in or to their own bodies, as leaning, 
bending, or turning awry, or squeezing their hands, 
or the like, were presently attended by the like 
things preternaturally done upon the bodies of 
the afflicted, though they were so far asunder 
that the afflicted could not at all observe the 
accused." 

He adds at the close of this account : " Flashy 
people may burlesque these things, but when hun- 
dreds of the most sober people in a country where 
they have as much mother wit certainly as the rest 
of mankind know them to be true, nothing but the 
absurd and forward spirit of Sadduceeism can ques- 
tion them. I have not yet mentioned so much as 
one thing that will not be justified, if it be re- 
quired, by the oaths of more considerate persons 
than any that can ridicule these odd phenomena." 

The point is that, while Mr. Mather believed 



274: WITCH HILL. 

that the devil could deceive by these odd effects, 
those exhibited at the examinations are assumed 
to have been results of what was done by the 
accused upon the accusers, the very point denied 
by Mr. Willard but claimed by the judges. He 
thus establishes them as " presumptions," and they 
become practically decisive evidence of guilt. He 
affirms that the same use might be made of spectral 
representations, for " many witchcrafts had been 
fairly detected on inquiries provoked and begun 
by spectral exhibitions." 

Again, in a letter written about the middle of 
June, 1692, at a most critical time of the proceed- 
ings, Cotton Mather, after emphasizing the fact 
that the devil might appear in any person's shape, 
even his own, says : " Nevertheless, a very great 
use is to be made of the spectral impressions upon 
the sufferers. They justly introduce and determine 
an inquiry into the circumstances of the person 
accused, and they strengthen other presumptions. 
When so much use is made of those things, I 
believe the use for which God intends them is 
made." 

We learn, from Cotton Mather's letter to Judge 
Richards, referred to in another place, that among 
these " other presumptions," in his judgment, 
which gave weight to specter evidence, were 
wounds given to specters and received by witches; 
tlie discovery of " witch-marks " or teats on the 
bodies of the accused; and the water ordeal, for 
he says, " some might be found buoyant if the 
water ordeal were made upon them." 



WITCH HILL. 275 

We have not been able to find any evidence 
that the magistrates of Salem followed this sug- 
gestion, by throwing the accused, with their thumbs 
and toes tied together, into the water, to see if they 
would float, after the manner of the " Witch-find- 
er General." As to the presumption from witch- 
marks, Hutchinson says : " Some said the credulity 
was such that a flea-bite would pass well enough 
for a teat or devil's mark." 

The way in which some of the ministers quali- 
fied and explained their views of spectral evidence 
is seen further by a statement made by Increase 
Mather in his " Cases of Conscience." He says : 
"I know that at a meeting of the ministers at 
Cambridge, August 1, 1692, there were seven 
Elders present besides the President of the College. 
The question then discoursed on was whether the 
devil may not sometimes have a permission to 
represent an innocent person as tormenting such 
as are under diabolical molestation ? The answer, 
which they all concurred in, was in these words, 
namely, 'That the devil may sometimes have a 
permission to represent an innocent person as tor- 
menting such as are under diabolical molestations, 
but that such things are rare and extraordinary, 
especially when such matters come before civil 
judicatures;' and that some of the most eminent 
ministers of the land who were not at that meet- 
ing are of the same judgment I am assured." 

Cotton Mather in his " Wonders of the Invisible 
World " refers to this meeting, and says it uttered 
the sense of other ministers " eminently cautious 



276 WITCH HILL. 

and judicious." These explanations of their posi- 
tion on spectral evidence account for the language 
of the ministers in the second article of their ad- 
vice to the authorities. They there "with all 
thankfulness acknowledge the success which a 
merciful God " had given to the endeavors of the 
magistrates " to detect abominable witchcrafts." 
The readers know what the methods were which 
the magistrates used to secure this " success." 




CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE acting magistrates have been before us in 
their official conduct. They have not made 
the most favorable impression by the manner in 
which they have discharged their duties in the 
court-room. Their bearing toward the trembling 
prisoners has been harsh and oppressive. There 
has been scarcely a concealment of the fact that 
condemnation preceded trial. No counsel was 
allowed the prisoners, and friends expressed their 
sympathy for them in the presence of authority at 
the peril of their lives. The examinations in many 
cases were hasty, and the execution followed swift 
upon condemnation. The crowd of amazed spec- 
tators in the court-room listened with profound 
interest. The Judges, with solemn dignity occu- 
pying an elevated seat, attended by other office- 
bearers, with the afflicted girls close at hand, 
flanked by John Indian, awaited the prisoner. 
Her approach sent the girls into convulsive fits, 
and John Indian into ground tumblings. The 
piercing, agonizing cries of the girls filled the court- 
room, and reached the ears of the excited people 
without. Their eyes set in their heads, their 
distorted countenances as they writhed in pain, 

]8 



278 WITCH HILL. 

filled the Court and spectators with awe and grief. 
The prisoner was blindfolded and made to touch 
the sufferers, and immediately they were well ; or, 
if they did not instantly recover, as was usually 
the case, the Judge pronounced them well* Now 
came the battle between the accused and accusers, 
or the contest in which it was assumed by the 
Court that the prisoner knocked down the wit- 
nesses by a glance of her eye, a pressure of her 
hand, though several feet off — by the movement 
of a foot, or the twisting of the body. The patient 
Court lost hours of precious time by this annoying 
wickedness of the arraigned. It was to them the 
consummation of criminality to " act witchcraft in 
the presence of authority." They ordered the 
prisoner to be bound in the presence of the Court 
and people. An officer was placed at either side 
of her to prevent Satanic acting. She was com- 
manded to look away from the accused, while, at 
the intervals of composure on the part of the wit- 
nesses, the Judge demanded of the prisoner to ex- 
plain these wonderful phenomena. " Who hurts 
these ? " " Can you tell what afflicts them ? " which 
meant, Clear yourself from responsibility for this 
witchcraft — Prove your innocence ! Generally the 
trembling prisoner was wholly at loss, and as sur- 
prised and awed by these sights and sounds as was 
the Court and gaping crowd, and could only say, 
meekly, "It is an amazing and humbling provi- 
dence; I know nothing of it," acquiescing in the 
justice of a sentence of guilty although conscious 
of innocence. Occasionally a prisoner, provoked 



WITCH HILL. 279 

and stung by the injustice of the magistrate and 
the impertinence of an under officer or bystander, 
answered, "How should I know? don't ask me!" 
or, being keenly wounded, retorted, "You are a 
liar! I am no more a witch than you are a wiz- 
ard ; " or, more rarely, one coolly declared, "These 
may dissemble for aught I know;" "The devil 
may take any shape;" "I do not know that there 
are any witches." In the meantime the Judges 
and their satellites urge the prisoners to confess, 
as the only means of salvation either in this world 
or the next, and the girls shriek from incessant at- 
tacks by horrid ghosts. They are seized by the 
throat and strangled till they are black in the face. 
They are pinched, pierced with pins, knocked down, 
and heavy specters sit upon their breasts until 
the young life is nearly crushed from their bodies. 
This is varied by more appalling incidents. The 
girls see, not spirits called " from the vasty deep," 
but specters from the graves of murdered men, 
women, and children. They come in their wind- 
ing-sheets, with faces snowy white when they look 
at the witnesses, but which turn as red as blood 
when they look upon the accused. These cry 
mightily for vengeance, threatening Court and 
witnesses if their wrongs are not redressed by the 
punishment of the prisoner. To be sure, the Court 
see none of these. But then the girls — " the poor 
afflicted" — do, and it is to their honors just as cer- 
tainly true. 

A less terrific exhibition was the prisoner in 
specter sitting on a beam, at which the specter- 



280 WITCH HILL. 

sighted witness pointed, and toward which Court 
and audience gazed, yet beheld nothing. Xor did 
these audacious ghosts always keep at such respect- 
ful distances. They came into the very face of 
authority, and once the Judge was assured one 
sat on the table in front of him. His honor struck 
at it bravely w r ith his sword-cane, breaking the 
cane but not, so far as we are informed, hurting 
the specter. 

In all this there was no trifling. There was to 
every one — from the anxious Judges, oppressed by 
a sense of their responsibility, to the humblest by- 
stander — with a few exceptions, an appalling real- 
ity in the whole scene. To the prisoner it carried 
with it a blasted reputation, a ruined estate, and 
an ignominious death. Who was responsible ? 

Let us look at the Judges out of the Court, 
through the eyes of their friends as well as ene- 
mies, and from a point of view affording greater 
promptings to a charitable judgment than that 
afforded by their official bearing. 

We will first call upon their friends the Mathers 
— father and son — to speak in their behalf. These 
eminent ministers were their personal friends, had 
a large influence in appointing them to office, and 
in the bringing into existence the special court 
over which they so fatally presided. They must 
be allowed to take the stand, and none will have 
any reason to doubt the sincerity of their testimony. 

Cotton Mather speaking, in his "Wonders of 
the Invisible World," of the Judges in their con- 
nection with the witchcraft proceedings, mentions 



WITCH HILL. 281 

" their heart-breaking solicitude how they might 
therein best serve God and man. Have there been 
faults on any side fallen into ? Surely they have 
at worst been but the faults of a well-meaning 
ignorance." 

In his diary he says, "I saw in most of the 
Judges a most charming instance of prudence and 
patience ; and I know the exemplary prayer and 
anguish of soul wherewith they had sought the 
direction of Heaven above most other people, 
whom I generally saw enchanted into a raging, 
railing, scandalous, and unreasonable disposition, 
as the distress increased upon us. For this cause, 
though I could not allow the principles that some 
of the Judges espoused, yet I could not but speak 
honorably of their persons on all occasions; and 
my compassion upon the sight of their difficulties, 
raised by my journeys to Salem, the chief seat of 
the diabolical vexations, caused me yet more to 
do so." 

Writing to a friend in midsummer, 1692, when 
the witchcraft excitement was fiercer than the dog- 
star heat, he speaks of the danger that the devil 
might " serve the Court a trick " by the evidence 
presented, and adds, "It is of singular happiness 
that we are blessed with Judges who are aware of 
this danger." 

Again, " Our honorable judges have used, as 
judges have heretofore done, spectral evidence, 
to introduce their further inquiries into the lives 
of the persons accused ; and they have, therefore, 
by the wonderful providence of God, been so 



282 WITCH HILL. 

strengthened with other evidences, that some of 
the witch gang have been fairly executed." 

He gives the magistrates an indirect but valuable 
indorsement in his estimate of the accused persons 
at Salem Village. It is in this style : " The devil 
exhibiting himself ordinarily as a small black man, 
has decoyed a fearful knot of proud, forward, igno 
rant, envious, and malicious creatures to list them- 
selves in his horrid service by entering their names 
in a book by him tendered unto them." 

Soon after the collapse of the witchcraft excite- 
ment, Cotton Mather wrote the history, in part, of 
the trials by the Special Court, in the preface of 
which he calls the executed persons " malefactors," 
and refers to the trials as giving occasion for " a 
pious thankfulness unto God for justice being so 
far done among us." When Burroughs, Willard, 
Proctor, Jacobs, and Carrier were hanged, he was 
present, and said they all died by a righteous sen- 
tence. If, therefore, in his judgment, the executed 
were proved " malefactors," (and if they had not 
been legally proved so he should not, and we think 
he w r ould not, have called them "malefactors,") 
and if the trials evinced "justice" being done, 
then were the judges the right men, in the right 
place, at the right time. 

The book which contains these words which bear 
so favorably upon the judges, President Mather 
read and approved before it was printed. 

But we must call upon less partial persons to 
speak of the judges. Brattle, to whom we have 
before referred, speaking of the judges and spectral 



WITCH HILL. 283 

evidence, says that they " will by no means allow- 
that any are brought in guilty and condemned by 
virtue of specter evidence as it is called." 

Mr. Willard in his " Some Miscellany Observa- 
tions," says that the judges say "the devil is in the 
specter by the person's consent," and " tell us that 
the devil cannot represent an innocent person doing 
mischief." And, at the same time, Mr. Willard 
represents the judges as saying : " We never im- 
prisoned any on mere spectral evidence, or the bare 
accusation of the afflicted." If they claimed thai 
they never " imprisoned " any on such evidence, 
we safely infer that they denied ever condemning 
any to death by such a process. 

Mr. Willard regards this claim, as we might sup- 
pose, as preposterous. He answers that they might 
as well insist that they have not " examined any 
publicly who w T ere before of good reputation." 
And Brattle says of such avowals: "Whether it 
is not purely by specter evidences that these per- 
sons are found guilty, I leave any man of sense to 
judge and determine." . 

Most men " of sense " who read the court records 
of the trials will, w r e think, "judge and determine" 
tli at every person committed to prison, and every 
person whose life was taken away, thus suffered by 
specter evidence alone. But we may consider, 
though we may not accept, the magistrate's dis- 
claimer. 

The facts, then, concerning the magistrates and 
ministers seem to stand thus : The magistrates 
believed that the appearance of a person in spec- 



284 WITCH HILL. 

ter, tormenting the afflicted, was proof of guilt, 
because possible only by his consent. The minis- 
ters believed that such an appearance was not cer- 
tain proof of guilt, because the devil might assume 
the shape of an innocent person ; but they believed 
this " a rare and extraordinary " occurrence, and 
that it was especially so " in cases of judicature." 
They believed specter evidences of "very great 
use," as they "justly introduce and determine an 
inquiry." They did not believe in prohibition, 
but temperance in its use. The judges said, we are 
temperate in this matter; though we believe we 
may, we never do condemn on that evidence. lYe 
follow the advice of the ministers, and use it as 
an inquiry only. The ministers generally, it is 
evident, accepted this avowal of the judges, as they 
esteemed, it a matter of devout gratitude that 
" success " had been attained in endeavors by the 
judges to detect witchcrafts, and such leading men 
as the Mathers indorsed the "justice" of the ends 
reached by the methods used. 

The truth appears to be this : That while these 
two prominent classes of actors in the proceedings 
were conscientiously, and even religiously, endeav- 
oring to discharge their duty in the fear of God, 
they were overawed and utterly confounded by 
the phenomena developed from the initiation to the 
close of the proceedings. Theirs was the error of 
a credulity for which they must be judged in con- 
nection with the age in which they lived, and the 
popular furor with which they were surrounded. 

But it is an error to claim that the ministers 



WITCH HILL. 285 

were on one side and the magistrates on the other, 
whether in matters of opinion or practice concern- 
ing the witchcraft proceedings. They differed 
among themselves considerably in both these 
respects. 

The venerable John Higginson of Salem had 
the honor of being cried out against by the circle 
for his want of sympathy with them and what was 
done by them. The Rev. John Wise, one of the 
ministers of Ipswich, wrote a petition at his own 
peril in behalf of the accused, and is said to have 
been " discerning enough to see the erroneousness 
of the proceedings from the beginning." The two 
ministers of Andover stood clear of the whole 
business. One of them, Rev. Mr. Dane, shared 
Higginson's honor of being accused. We have 
seen Mr. Willard's position both in his tract and 
in Ins practice at Groton. 

Among the magistrates who had a clean record 
were Governor Phipps and ex-Governor Bradstreet; 
Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill, who flatly re- 
fused to sit on the bench at the trials in the Special 
Court, returning to his place only when specters 
had left ; and Robert Pike of Salisbury, who at an 
opportune and critical time wrote to one of the 
judges a letter in which, with keen logic, he 
showed the wrong of the whole proceedings. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

¥E have endeavored to make a candid inquiry 
into the relation to the sad transactions of our 
history, borne by those who had prominence in 
directing them. But the reader's attention, as the 
scenes presented have passed before him, has been 
fixed upon the accusers. What are we to think 
of them ? Were their sufferings, and all the dread- 
ful sounds which they heard, and the fearful sights 
which they saw, real ? Or were they skillful de- 
ceivers, conscious of the destruction they wrought, 
but taking a Satanic delight in it ? Looking more 
closely into the strange phenomena developed 
through and about them, may we not discern a 
power behind them of which they were, though 
not the innocent, yet still the deluded and suffering 
victims ? 

To enable the reader to see them more fully, we 
will repeat, from an eye-witness, the story of the 
beginning of their experience in suffering. Mr. 
Hale of Beverly, in a history written a few years 
after the excitement, speaking of the witchcraft 
actions of Tituba, says : a After this the afflicted 
persons cried out of the Indian woman named 
Tituba that she did pinch, prick, and grievously 



WITCH HILL. 287 

tormeut them ; and that they saw her here and 
there where nobody else could. Yea, they could 
tell where she was and what she did when out of 
their human sight." 

Such was their experience, it will be recollected, 
at the start. We have seen their later and mature 
sufferings, declarations, and performances. We 
will pause for a few moments, and hear what other 
eye-witnesses have to say about them, and gather 
the opinions of those living in the midst of the 
storm which they, in part, raised. 

The opinion concerning them of, perhaps, the 
larger number of the ministers, may be gathered 
from their uniform phraseology when referring to 
them in their official and private letters. " Our 
poor neighbors," " the poor afflicted," " these af- 
flicted children," are constantly recurring phrases. 

The magistrates, sitting as Judges in court, 
regarded their sufferings, sights, and testimonies 
as simple verities, however they might deceive 
themselves concerning the use they made of them 
in their verdicts. Yet we have seen that in some 
cases, at least, they both saw and acknowledged 
that the afflicted lied. 

Mr. Willard in his tract gives us instructive in- 
timations that "the common vogue," in referring 
to them, is to say, "that they are scandalous per- 
sons, liars, and loose in their conversation, and 
therefore not to be believed." But he allows that 
the judges declared that such talk was a mistake. 
Again he declares them to be " possessed per- 
sons ; " and that this the Judges " stiffly deny." 



288 WITCH HILL. 

We have given, in another place, his reasons in 
detail for not regarding them as "competent 
witnesses." 

Brattle, one of our best authorities, says of " the 
afflicted" that they "hold conference with the 
devil, and are therefore not to be believed." He 
says, " Good spirits will not lie. But those that 
speak by these persons have been proved liars, and 
are, therefore, evil spirits." " The devil," he thinks, 
" imposes upon their brain, and deludes their fancy 
and imagination." 

Brattle, therefore, very naturally expresses great 
surprise that they should be " so much counte- 
nanced" and consulted — " that the justices," whom 
he thinks " are well-meaning men," " should so far 
give ear to the devil, as merely upon his authority 
to issue their warrants and apprehend people." 

Again he says, "The consulting these afflicted, 
as above said, seems to me to be a very gross evil, 
a real abomination, not fit to be known in New 
England, and yet is a thing practiced, not only by 
Tom and John — I mean the ruder and more igno- 
rant sort — but by many who profess high, and pass 
among us for some of the better sort. This is that 
which aggravates the evil, and makes it heinous 
and tremendous ; and yet this is not the worst of 
it, for, as sure as I now write to you, even some of 
our civil leaders and spiritual teachers, who, I 
think, should punish and preach down such sorcery 
and wickedness, do yet allow of, encourage, yea, 
and practice, this very abomination." 

He further remarks of these afflicted, or, as he 



WITCH HILL. 289 

calls them, "blind and nonsensical girls," that 
though "they have scores of fits in a day, yet in 
the intervals of time are hale and hearty, robust 
and lusty, as though nothing had afflicted them." 

We find this same remark concerning the good 
bodily condition of the girls, made by other writers 
of the times. The indictments against the accused, 
after reciting the " detestable witchcrafts " prac- 
ticed by them upon the bodies of the afflicted whose 
names are specified, says, that by them "they were 
and are consumed, pined, and wasted." The chief 
Judge, however, in charging the first jury, " told 
them that they were not to mind whether the 
bodies of the said afflicted were really pined and 
consumed, as was expressed in the indictment ; but 
whether the said afflicted did not suffer from the 
accused such afflictions as naturally tended to their 
being pined, consumed, and wasted. This, said 
he, is a pining and consuming in the sense of the 
law." 

This " robust and lusty " condition of the circle 
accounts for their good spirits behind the screen, 
and the necessity of their having " some sport." 

The Pastors of And over, to whose good record 
we have referred, Messrs. Dane and Barnard, in 
writing to the Governor and General Court in be- 
half of their arrested and imprisoned parishioners, 
boldly stigmatize the accusers as "distempered 
persons," " children and others who are under a 
diabolical influence;" they call their declarations 
"scandalous reports" which they have "got up;" 
they pronounce the specter evidence " conceit," 



290 WITCH HILL. 

and that the devil had obtained a great advantage 
of the authorities, and that many innocent persons 
were accused and imprisoned. 

No doubt there were many in humbler stations 
who entertained the same opinion of the afflicted. 
We have already given John Proctor's opinion of 
them, and his method of curing their distemper. 
Edward Bishop, attending at one time the trials, 
was in company at the inn of an u afflicted" Indian. 
Bishop undertook his cure, as Solomon proposes 
to reform unruly children. The Indian's condi- 
tion immediately improved, and he mounted a 
horse behind a friend to ride home, Bishop being 
on horseback and riding beside them. On the 
way the Indian had one of the afflicted person's 
"amazing fits," and laid hold of his companion 
with his teeth. Bishop applied to him the rod, 
and " he soon recovered and promised not to do so 
any more." The result led Bishop to declare that 
he believed he could cure all the afflicted in the 
same way ; but this remedy was in advance of the 
times, and Bishop soon found himself, as many 
progressive men have, in prison for his truly ex- 
cellent discovery. 

Joseph Putnam, father of Israel of Bunker Hill 
fame, turned his back from the first, in contempt, 
upon " the afflicted," and their patronizing friend, 
Mr. Parris. Of course, he expected to be cried 
out against, and he proved equal to the emergency. 
He kept some one of his horses under saddle night 
and day. He armed himself and family, and defied 
the prosecutors. They knew the man, that with 



WITCH HILL. 291 

him accusation and attempted arrest meant war. 
He would fight first, and when overpowered, flee. 
He was not molested. 

Such were some of the contemporaneous opin- 
ions and feelings existing in reference to the 
afflicted. That which was unfavorable was excep- 
tional, of course, or there would have been no 
witchcraft history to write. The phenomena de- 
veloped in connection with their testimony utterly 
confounded all, whatever they thought of their 
character, or the proper method of dealing with 
them ; and there were men in their company, and 
watching them for months, whose integrity as wit- 
nesses could not easily be excelled, and whose in- 
tellectual sagacity was of the first order. All the 
Putnams were men, as we have seen, of independ- 
ent thought and observation, and without fear 
in uttering their convictions. Deacon IngersolFs 
conscientious and prayerful watching saw no trick. 
Some of the judges, and all of the attending min- 
isters, were educated men, trained to a keen dis- 
cernment, but they could see no legerdemain — no 
cunning acting, or sham pretensions on the part 
of the girls. 

" Joseph Hutchinson," says Mr. Upham, " was a 
sharp, stern, and skeptical observer." So, doubtless, 
were many in the attending daily crowds. Yet 
the opinion was nearly unanimous, that the con- 
dition of the accusers was supernatural. Among 
those who attempted to explain their condition, 
there was of course a difference of opinion. The 
judges, with the majority, believed they were " be- 



292 WITCH HILL. 

witched," that is, afflicted by the devil through 
the agency of the witches who had volunteered 
their services for this purpose. Others, with Mr, 
Willard, believed they were "possessed," that is, 
under the influence of the devil, without the re- 
sponsibility of any out of themselves. To this last 
conclusion we are as much bound now as any were 
then — bound to it by the credible accounts of the 
experience of these girls and other "afflicted," and 
by the similarity of such experience to that of 
many in all ages before and in every generation 
since, extending, in some degree, down to our own 
time ; and, especially, by their identity in char- 
acter with the New Testament " possessions." The 
assumption of trick and practiced performing does 
not meet the case. There are in it things too deep 
and difficult for that explanation. God did not 
work such deeds of darkness. Unaided human 
power could not. " Looking at these facts as they 
are, do they not indicate something besides random 
shots? Does not the curtain seem to conceal a 
chief actor ? " 

" The tempest that springs suddenly out of a 
dead calm, tearing the sea from its foundations 
and flinging it against the skies, must have a 
powerful cause somewhere ; seen or unseen, a cause 
there must be. The frightful heaving of a burn- 
ing volcano must be produced by an existing force. 
So also must this spiritual earthquake, the frightful 
sea of evil passions, which surges about and some- 
times threatens to engulf us, be produced by a 
power not figurative but literal. Actual force in 



WITCH HILL. 293 

a living spirit, as the psychological root, becomes 
an absolute necessity. 

" The possibility of Satanic agency in spiritual- 
ism we base upon the Bible. It speaks unquali- 
fiedly of demoniacal possession, though it does not 
tell us what it is ; of witchcraft without describing 
it; of necromancy without offering explanations; 
and of those having familiar spirits, without dis- 
closing their origin — whether they are from earth 
or hell." * 

The responsibility of the afflicted for this pos- 
session by the devil we will not attempt to meas- 
ure. It is enough to say that it must have been 
fearfully great. It is seen in part, in the occasion 
which they gave him thus to enter them. They 
did not obey the Divine injunction which com- 
mands us to " resist the devil." They drew near 
to him, in the nightly performances of their circle, 
as their modern successors do, and he drew near 
to them. They sought him in endeavoring to pry 
into the forbidden secrets of the spirit-world, and 
they were found of him with terrible power. They 
resisted God when they approached the devil by 
their nightly performances ; they cast off his Spirit, 
whose office work it is to draw the mind and heart 
away from these intermeddlings ; they despised 
the declarations of his Word, which forbids all 
such practices. This is the great moral lesson of 
our story. Let the young learn by it to avoid the 
" circles." Let them listen to the commands given 
by God ages ago, and which have never been re- 

* " Credo." 
19 



294 WITCH HILL. 

voked: "Regard not them that have familiar 
spirits, neither seek after wizards ; . . . I am the Lord 
your God." Lev. xix, 31. "And the soul that 
turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after 
wizards, ... I will even set my face against that 
soul, and will cut him off from among his people." 
Lev. xx, 6. 

Concerning the later history of the most of the 
afflicted we know nothing. The black cloud of 
infamy rests upon their name. In an act of the 
Legislature of the Province, which removed the 
stain given by the law to their victims, this sen- 
tence occurs : " Some of the principal witnesses 
and accusers, in those dark and severe prosecutions 
have since discovered themselves to be persons of 
profligate and vicious conversation." Of the few 
who had a better subsequent record we shall speak 
in our pleasanter task of portraying the penitential 
tears which were shed.. 







I 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE sudden subsiding of the witchcraft delusion 
in the autumn of 1692, and its almost entire 
extinction during the following winter and spring, 
implied not only an opening of the eyes of the 
people in reference to the accusers, but an awakened 
tenderness toward the accused. We are therefore 
prepared for acknowledgments of mistakes made, 
halting confessions of wrong done, or heart-felt 
contrition, and penitential tears, on the part of 
the actors in the tragedy, according as they see 
their responsibility for its terrible results, and de- 
sire squarely to meet it in a Christian manner. We 
shall endeavor, in a brief chapter, to portray the 
development of this feeling. It will be a pleasant 
task; and if the penitence shall not be found as 
general nor as deep as the case plainly requires, 
we may find occasion for charity in the greater 
readiness of our own hearts to condemn sin in 
others, than to see and confess it. ourselves. 

We will begin with the ministers — with some 
of them who were most deeply involved in respon- 
sibility. 

The Rev. Mr. Hale of Beverly stood, during 
those terrible months when the arrows of death 



296 WITCH HILL. 

were being shot into many families, in close affinity 
to the hands which drew the bow. Any confession, 
therefore, from him will be gladly received by the 
reader — the more frank and earnest, the more sat- 
isfactory, of course. In his book, written soon 
after the delusion, he says : 

" I would come yet nearer to our own times, and 
bewail the errors and mistakes that have been 
made in the year 1692, by following such traditions 
of our fathers, maxims of the common law, and 
precedents and principles, which now we may see, 
weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, are found 
too light. Such was the darkness of the day, the 
tortures and lamentations of the afflicted, and the 
power of former precedents, that we walked in the 
clouds and could not see our way. I would hum- 
bly propose whether it would not be expedient 
that somewhat more should be publicly done than 
yet hath for clearing the good name and reputation 
of some that have suffered upon this account." 

In another place he proceeds to state, in six par- 
ticulars, " Wherein it doth appear that there was 
a-going too far in this affair." He then in effect 
acknowledges that some innocent persons had been 
executed. 

Cotton Mather copied into his "Magnolia" with 
approval, and thus indorsed, these six proofs that 
there had been a-going too far. This is the only 
confession that we find from him of "errors and 
mistakes," or "a-going too far," in which he was 
so deeply involved. 

The Rev. John Iligginson, to whom we have 



WITCH HILL. 297 

referred as having a good record, senior Pastor of 
the Church in Salem, wrote a preface to Mr. Hale's 
book. He was then eighty-two years old. He 
says the publication of the book will be timely 
and useful, among other reasons : " That whatever 
errors or mistakes are fell into in the dark hour of 
temptation that was upon us may be (upon more 
light) discovered, acknowledged, and disowned by 
us, as that it may be matter of warning and cau- 
tion to those who come after us, that they may not 
fall into the like, 1 Cor. x, 11." 

He proceeds to suggest that the law set forth in 
Leviticus, fourth chapter, requiring a sin-offering 
for the sins of ignorance committed by the rulers 
and congregation, is binding " upon us in a Gospel 
way." 

From no persons will it be more gratifying to 
receive the evidence of penitential tears than from 
the Rev. Mr. Parris of the Village, and the Rev. 
Mr. Noyes of Salem town. We present such facts 
bearing in that direction as we have. 

In November, 1694, about two years after the 
collapse, Mr. Parris's parish difficulties revived, 
with new and bitter elements of discord. To the 
complaints of earlier months were added those 
growing out of his connection with the trials of 
the accused. Their friends, among whom John 
Tarbell and Samuel Nurse, son-in-law and son of 
Rebecca Nurse, were prominent, urged their 
complaints with a strong will and skillful manage- 
ment. Closely pressed in the conflict, he read to 
his opponents a paper entitled "Meditations for 



298 WITCH HILL. 

Peace," from which the following confessions are 
an extract : " In that the Lord ordered the late 
horrid calamity, which afterward, plague-like, 
spread in many other places, to break out first in 
my family, I cannot but look upon as a very sore 
rebuke, and humbling providence, both to myself 
and mine, and desire so we may improve it. 

" In that also in my family were some of both 
parties, namely, accusers and accused, I look also 
upon as an aggravation of the rebuke, as an ad- 
dition of wormwood to the gall. 

"In that means were used in my family (though 
totally unknown to me or mine, except servants, 
till afterward) to raise spirits, and create appari- 
tions, in no better than a diabolical way, I do look 
upon as a further rebuke of Divine Providence. 
And by all, I do humbly own this day, before God 
and his people, that God has been righteously spit- 
ting in my face. (Numbers xii, 14.) And I desire 
to lie low under all this reproach, and to lay my 
hand upon my mouth." 

He further says, that in the management of the 
witchcraft cases he erred with regard to the use 
of specter evidence, and the use of one afflicted 
person to ascertain who afflicted another. He 
closes by declaring : " I do most heartily, fervently, 
and humbly beseech pardon of the merciful God, 
through the blood of Christ, of all mistakes and 
trespasses in so weighty a matter ; and also all 
your forgiveness of every offense in this and other 
affairs, wherein you see or conceive I have erred 
and offended ; professing in the presence of Al- 



WITCH HILL. 299 

mighty God, that what I have done has been, as 
for substance as I apprehended was duty, how- 
ever through weakness, ignorance, etc., I may have 
been mistaken." 

" The elders and messengers of the Churches," 
who met in council at Salem Village, April, 1695, 
in reference to Mr. Parris' difficulties with his par- 
ish, declare that he had taken, in the witchcraft 
matters, "Sundry unwarrantable and uncomfort- 
able steps ; " but they advise, since " by the good 
hand of God" he had been brought to see his 
error and to " fully express it," " that a Christian 
charity may and should receive satisfaction there- 
with." 

Dr. Bentley says of Mr. Noyes that " He came 
out and publicly confessed his error, never con- 
cealed a circumstance, never excused himself; 
visited, loved, blessed the survivors whom he had 
injured ; asked forgiveness always, and consecrated 
the residue of his life to bless mankind." 

A little later than the date of the confession of 
Mr. Parris, twelve ministers of Essex County peti- 
tion the General Court in behalf of those who 
had suffered in name and estates by the witchcraft 
proceedings; they call the accusers "young per- 
sons under diabolical molestations;" confess that 
innocent persons had suffered by credit given to 
them; and "that God may have a controversy 
with the land on that account." 

About the same time an eminent minister of 
Maiden wrote to the president of Harvard College, 
declaring the great errors of 1692, that innocent 



300 WITCH HILL. 

blood had been shed, and that " public and solemn 
acknowledgement of it, and humiliation for it," is 
a duty ; and that the more " particularly and per- 
sonally" it is done the more pleasing it would be 
in the sight of God, and the more effectual in turn- 
ing away his wrath. 

The jurors, by whose verdict the nineteen per- 
sons were condemned to death in the Special 
Court, caused to be published a frank, Christian 
confession of the great wrong that had been done 
through them. They did, in fact, but act in ac- 
cordance with the law and evidence, as interpreted 
and enforced by the Chief- Justice ; yet they be- 
came painfully affected by the recollection of what 
they had done as jurors, and the confession which 
follows was the result. After speaking of the 
specter evidence which they were prevailed upon 
to accept, and of their own ignorance of such mat- 
ters, and the innocent blood which had been shed 
thereby, they say : " We do therefore signify to all 
in general, and to the surviving sufferers in special, 
our deep sense of and sorrow for our errors in act- 
ing on such evidence in the condemning of any 
person ; and do hereby declare, that we justly fear 
that we were sadly deluded and mistaken, for 
which we are much disquieted and distressed in 
our minds, and do therefore humbly beg forgive- 
ness, first, of God for Christ's sake, for this our 
error, and pray that God would not impute the 
guilt of it to ourselves nor others; and we also 
pray that we may be considered candidly and 
aright by the living sufferers, as being then under 



WITCH HILL. 301 

the power of a strong and general delusion, utterly 
unacquainted with, and not experienced in matters 
of that nature. 

" We do heartily ask forgiveness of you all, whom 
we have justly offended ; and do declare, accord- 
ing to our present minds, we would none of us do 
such things again, on such grounds, for the whole 
world; praying you to accept of this by way of 
satisfaction for our offense, and that you would 
bless the inheritance of the Lord, that he may be 
entreated for the land.") 

The General Court, as the representative organ 
of the whole people, was slow in shedding the be- 
coming tears of j>enitence. They first ordered a 
day to be observed for public humiliation, fasting, 
and prayer, in reference to the sins committed in 
the " late awful tragedy ; " with tardiness they re- 
moved the legal stains upon the names of the con- 
demned; with greater seeming reluctance they 
acknowledged their responsibility for the spolia- 
tions by the officers of the law of the property of 
the accused, and made a late, insufficient, and un- 
justly divided appropriation to meet the demands 
of restitution. 

The first Church in Salem, which had excom- 
municated, under the most painful circumstances, 
Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey, " crossed and 
blotted out," in 1712, the records of excommunica- 
tion against them. 

The Salem Village Church was more prompt 
and explicit in their acts of reparation and their 
expressions of sorrow. In 1702 they rescinded the 



302 WITCH HILL. 

act of excommunication against Martha Corey, de- 
claring that it was done without sufficient evidence 
of her guilt, and that her exclusion from the Church 
" was not according to the will of God." 

We are most happy to be able to include at least 
one of the judges in our account of those who felt 
and publicly acknowledged their sins in the witch- 
craft matters. Judge Sewall of Boston was by no 
means the most deeply involved in guilt, but his 
contrition was eminently Christian. On the gen- 
eral fast-day he rose before the whole congregation, 
in the Old South Church in Boston, of, which he 
was a member, and handed the Pastor his written 
confession. It expressed his grief at the part he 
took in the witch trials ; begged forgiveness of 
God and the people, and requested their prayers 
for himself and for the guilty State. He remained 
standing while the paper w T as being read. He ob- 
served annually in private during the remainder 
of his life a day of humiliation and prayer, as an 
expression of his abiding sense of the great w T rong 
which he had done. 

Whittier thus embalms in verse this beautiful in- 
cident : 

"Stately and slow, witli thoughtful air, 
His black cap hiding his whitened hair, 
Walks the Judge of the great Assize, 
Samuel Sewall. the good and wise. 
His face with lines of firmness wrought, 
He wears the look of a man of thought, 
Who swears to his hurt and changes not; 
Yet touched and softened, nevertheless, 
With thi' grace of a Christian gentleness, 
The face that a child would climb to kisRl 



WITCH HILL. 303 

True and tender, and brave and just, 
That man might honor and women trust. 

Touching and sad, a tale is told. 
Like a penitent hj r mn of a psalmist old, 
Of the fast which the good man life-long kept, 
"With a haunting sorrow that never slept, 
As the circling year brought round the time 
Of an error that left the sting of crime, 
When he sat on the bench of the witchcraft courts, 
With the laws of Moses and Hale's Reports, 
And spoke in the name of both the word 
That gave the witch's neck to the cord, 
And piled the oaken planks that pressed 
The feeble life from the warlock's breast ! 
All the day long, from dawn to dawn, 
His door was bolted, his curtains drawn; 
No foot on his silent threshold trod, 
No eye looked on him save that of G-od, 
As he baffled the ghosts of the dead with charms 
Of penitent tears, and prayers, and psalms; 
And with precious proofs from the sacred word 
Of the boundless pity and love of the Lord, 
His faith confirmed and his trust renewed 
That the sin of his ignorance sorely rued, 
Might be washed away in the mingled flood 
Of his human sorrow and Christ's dear blood! ) 

We have stated that the historic record of the 
afflicted persons is, in general, that their subse- 
quent life" proved them to be " vile varlets," and 
utterly without credit. We are happy to find that 
this statement was not true of all. Ann Putnam, 
whose position among the accusers we have seen 
to be that of chief actor and spectral sight-seer, 
may be classed among those who shed tears of 
penitence. Her parents, who were largely respon- 



304 WITCH HILL. 

sible for their daughter's conduct, died quite near 
to each other, in 1699. She was then nineteen years 
of age; a large number of children, all younger 
than herself, were left in her care. Her health was 
feeble, and she soon became an invalid. A faithful 
Pastor, in whom the Village Church and parish 
were perfectly united, gently led her to a knowl- 
edge of Christ by faith in his atonement. She de- 
sired to make a public profession of this faith, and 
at the same time, to make an equally public con- 
fession of her sense of the wrong she had done in 
the great tragedy. Her confession was written, 
recorded in the church books, and signed by her. 
On the 25th of August, 1706, the day appointed for 
her public confession, a great concourse of people 
gathered at the Village Church. There must have 
been sad and suggestive recollections of the gather- 
ings to witness her supposed mental and bodily 
agonies, and to hear her frightful shrieks and wild 
ravings against the prisoners. Both the crowd 
and the object of their interest were now in their 
right minds. The Pastor, Mr. Green, read the 
confession, while Ann stood, and, at its close, ac- 
knowledged it to be hers. She then gave some 
account of her conversion, and was received into 
the Church. It was doubtless a solemn and prof- 
itable day. 

She confessed that innocent blood had been shed 
by her testimony and that uf others; that she was 
deluded by the devil; that she felt deep sorrow, 
desired to be humbled and to lie in the dust, espe- 
cially for being the chief instrument in accusing 



WITCH HILL. 305 

Rebecca Nurse and her two sisters. She finally 
begs forgiveness of God, and of all those to whom 
she had given sorrow or offense. She affirmed that 
she had never testified against any through ill-will. 
She never confessed that tricks or fraud of any 
kind had been used by herself or the other girls. 

She died in 1716, about thirty-six years of age. 
Her will, made toward the close of life, breathes 
an abiding confidence in the cleansing blood of 
Christ. She had greatly sinned, but her peniten- 
tial tears seem to have been sincere, her faith 
genuine, and the blotting out of her sins was 
" as a thick cloud." 




CHAPTER XXXI. 

¥E have told the story of the Salem witchcraft. 
We have endeavored to make the reader ac- 
quainted in some measure with the people among 
whom it occurred. We have introduced them to 
some of the principal sufferers, and tried candidly 
to present material by which the responsibility of 
the principal actors may be estimated, glancing for 
this purpose at the later history and confessions of 
a few of them, that they might speak, on this 
point, for themselves. 

The impression made by the facts thus presented 
may be deepened by a visit to the most prominent 
localities where they occurred. Fortunately we 
shall follow a pains-taking guide, who has left 
nothing to be investigated which affords a prob- 
ability of additional information in reference 
to them. We shall find the people every- where 
ready to enter into the object of our visit upon 
the slightest intimation of it, for, as they remark, 
" Mr. Upham has been here for the same purpose 
a great many times." With the map accom- 
panying his History in hand, and remembering 
the descriptions given of the localities, a stranger 
may find any place. It is not often that an in- 



WITCH HILL. 307 

vestigator into an important historic period pro- 
vides the means of so perfect a reproduction of 
its scenes. 

On leaving the cars at the station of the East- 
ern Railroad, Salem, we are quite near points of 
interest. The station-house fronts Washington- 
street, and the track of the road has been tun- 
neled under its center across the city. Walking 
up the street on the right-hand side, a few reds, 
to the corner of Essex-street, we stand before the 
First Church. Its marble tablets tell the princi- 
pal facts in the history of its site. Here was the 
meeting-house in which some of the preliminary 
trials of the w T itches took place. It was "a 
great and spacious house," and it was within 
its walls that " a demon, invisibly entering, tore 
down a part of it," as Bridget Bishop, passing on 
her way from the jail to the court-house, "gave 
a look toward the house." The present building 
is very substantial, and evidently has never been 
so abused. 

Directly opposite the church was the residence 
of Judge Hathorne. 

Crossing Essex-street, and keeping along Wash- 
ington-street to the corner of Church-street, we 
are near the site of Bridget Bishop's house. About 
its orchard, and in through the closed doors and 
windows of the neighbors' houses, if we may be- 
lieve witnesses, she played in specter some very 
naughty pranks. Directly opposite was the resi- 
dence of the Rev. Mr. Noyes, her Pastor, and her 
deluded prosecutor. Bridget, it will be recollected, 



308 WITCII HILL. 

moved from the town into the extreme east- 
ern part of the Village some years before her 
execution. 

In the middle of Washington-street, near where 
Church and Lynde streets now enter it, is the site 
of the Court-house in which, after Court and jurors 
had been overawed by specters, the accused 
received their death sentence. There is now a 
continual roar of railroad cars beneath its old 
foundation, thundering the admonition of modern 
civilization in the ears of any old fogy specter w T ho 
might wish to enter the new Court-house, a few 
rods distant. 

Passing through Federal-street to St. Peter' s- 
street — the old Prison Lane — and turning a few 
steps to the left, on the western side, we face the 
site of the old jail, where, with many other victims 
of the delusion, the Rev. George Burroughs was 
chained at the end of his forced and rapid journey 
from Maine. The new jail near the same spot, 
with its ample grounds and well-ordered surround- 
ings, bears evidence that ministers of the Gospel 
are not likely to find lodgings in its cells by a 
surprisal and on the testimony of shadowy wit- 
nesses. This new jail overlooks a burial-ground ; 
somewhere not far from this, according to tradition, 
Giles Corey suffered the penalty of keeping his 
mouth closed when the Court demanded, "Guilty 
or not guilty?" There was, for many years, a 
superstition in the minds of visionary people that 
Corey's specter haunted the field where the deed 
was done; and boys of the "olden time," as they 



WITCH HILL. 315 

same place with reverent care. The field in which 
they lie having passed from the Jacobs family, the 
stones which long designated the grave have been 
removed to make way for the plow, which tnrned 
up the soil last year for an onion bed. The spot 
should be purchased and inclosed by lovers of his- 
toric landmarks. 

Mr. Jacobs knew well his grandmother, who was 
born in 1725, and lived to a great age. She lived 
in this house from her marriage to her death. It 
is a singular fact that she is not known to have 
talked of the tragedy connected with the family, 
nor to have related any incidents of the witchcraft 
proceedings, though she must have been conver- 
sant with some witnesses of its scenes. It confirms 
the truth of Mr. Upham's remark, that the people 
of that period, and their children, regarded the 
subject as one to be blotted from remembrance as 
soon and as perfectly as possible. 

We passed over the Endicott River bridge, and 
turned off from the main road into the grounds of 
the "Orchard Farm" of Governor Endicott. A 
portion of them are owned to-day by his descend- 
ants bearing his name. We looked at the famous 
pear-tree planted by the Governor, and perhaps 
brought over from England by him on his first 
voyage. It is undoubtedly " the oldest inhabitant" 
of its family. 

With our face turned toward Dan vers Center — 
"Salem Village" — we were soon on the "Towns- 
end Bishop " farm, the owner of which, with owners 
of adjoining farms, contended so successfully, and, 



316 WITCH HILL. 

as we think, so wrongfully with the owner of the 
u Orchard Farm." The house built by Townsend 
Bishop still stands, with a remarkably green old 
age. It has a marvelous history ! We have re- 
lated the facts connected with it in the course of 
our story. Its chief interest to us is in the fact 
that it was long the home of Rebecca Nurse, and 
that from it, in her old age, she went out to suffer 
her great wrong. Its identity is clearly estab- 
lished. Francis Nurse, husband of Rebecca, after 
her death, gave up the homestead to his eldest 
son, Samuel, who immediately took possession. 
The rest of the property he divided among his four 
sons and four dauo-hters. The children who live 
in it to-day are the direct descendants of Rebecca 
Nurse. Some slight additions have been made to 
it, and it has probably always been kept in good 
repair. Its hewn oaken timbers are equal to the 
friction of another century. It is surrounded by 
the variety, so desirable to the early settlers, of 
high land, and that more readily used for graz- 
ing. It w T ill be remembered that after Francis 
Nurse bought the estate, his sons and sons-in-law 
cut from the forest within his claim farms on 
which they erected houses. The house of his son 
Samuel, and that of Tarbell, his son-in-law, still re- 
main. TarbelPs must have been a tirst-class house 
in its day, but is now dilapidated and unoccupied. 
It was made a condition of sale by the father 
that the houses of the children should be con- 
nected with the homestead by well-opened drive- 
ways. As we looked upon the relation to each 



WITCH HILL. 317 

other of these estates, and their pleasant location, 
we felt, as never before, the terribleness of the 
shock of the witchcraft visitation to their early- 
owners. 

It has been the uniform tradition of the family 
that the body of Rebecca Nurse was obtained, and 
deposited by her family in the family burying- 
ground upon the estate. 

A walk of little less than a mile from the Towns- 
end Bishop house brought us into the place where 
the tragic scenes of our story commenced — Salem 
Village. Under its present name, Danvers Center, 
and in its present aspect, a more inviting locality 
could hardly be found. Intelligence, thrift, and 
comfort are every-where apparent. Under the 
guidance of Mr. Moses Prince, who has been called 
"an embodiment of the history, genealogy, and 
traditions of the vicinity," we readily found what 
we wished to see. The first site visited was that 
of the parsonage in which the witchcraft delusion 
was cradled. The spot seemed dreary and forbid- 
ding. Perhaps it was the wintry day of our visit 
which induced the impression. The land about it 
looked as if it was now little cared for, and little 
worth caring for. It is away from the present 
street, and none of the modern houses have sought 
this place. A few broken bricks are all that mark 
the place where the parsonage stood. It was a 
good-sized house for those days, "forty-two feet 
in length, twenty feet broad, thirteen feet stud," 
having "no gable end," but "a lean-to." It was 
becoming for the notorious house to return to 



318 WITCH HILL. 

dust, and it is also fitting that the spot should be 
deserted. 

Quite near the parsonage, but on higher and 
better ground, stood the house of Jonathan Wal- 
cot, father of Mary Walcot, who will be remem- 
bered as an original member of the circle. Mr. 
Prince remarked that he plowed up, at one time, 
some of the bricks of the chimney. This spot too 
is forsaken. 

We walked down to the site of the old meeting- 
house, now occupied by a large farm-house. The 
lane leading to it, through which the frenzied 
crowds poured to witness the bewildering transac- 
tions in the church, has shared the blight resting 
upon many other historic localities of the witch- 
craft period. A lady, brought up in the Village, 
remarked to us that, when a girl, she had always 
avoided so far as possible this locality, especially 
in the evening. The old meeting-house disap- 
peared soon after 1692. It was stripped, moved 
from the spot, and converted into a barn. Some 
of the aged people of the present generation re- 
member it in this form, as, bowing under the weight 
of years and sorrowful memories, it was crumbling 
to dust. Its successor was built on Watch-house 
Hill, before Deacon IngersoH's door, and only a 
few rods from the old site. Here stands the Vil- 
lage church of to-day, a conspicuous object viewed 
from the surrounding country. The present par- 
sonage has taken the eligible lot on which was the 
deacon's residence, whose "great room" was privy 
to so many witchcraft scenes. 



WITCH HILL. 319 

The well-preserved church and parish records 
form a kind of connecting link between the pres- 
ent and the events we have narrated. We were 
permitted, by the courtesy of Augustus Mudge, 
Esq., the parish clerk, to examine those in his 
keeping. They were begun in 1672. The hand- 
writing is excellent, and the manner in which the 
facts are stated show considerable practice in com- 
position. They are, in a measure, a journal of the 
progress of the Village. Many important facts 
have been gleaned from them by Mr. Upham. It 
was a stormy time when they were ushered into 
the world, but they lie placidly beside their fellows 
of calmer periods. 

Turning from the Village, we may take the 
"Danvers Center and Salem" omnibus, which 
passes through Peabody, which we find it difficult 
to speak of in this connection except as the u Mid- 
dle Precinct." 

As we enter Salem we may discern a range of 
rocky hills upon our right hand, rising somewhat 
abruptly from Boston-street, through which we are 
riding. Stepping from the omnibus we find a ready 
guidance from the passers-by to Witch Hill* Its 
top could not have been more barren and drear in 
1692 than it is to-day. The population has as- 
cended its northern side, and its eastern declivity, 
toward Boston-street, is filled with dwelling-houses 
and places of mechanical labor. The hill descends 
sharply into a valley on the south side, and 
somewhat so on the west, and these sides are 

* See Frontispiece. 



320 WITCH HILL. 

rugged and difficult of access. Just before reach- 
ing the Boston and Salem turnpike, a third of a 
mile south, the rocky range re-appears. About 
two rods from this southern brow of the hill stood, 
until within a few years, a venerable tree on which, 
according to the popular belief, the victims of the 
witchcraft mania were handed. Pieces of it are 
preserved and shown to the curious. Very little 
vegetation could ever have grown upon the imme- 
diate hill. No dwelling is likely to occupy it. 
But the views from Witch Hill are of almost un- 
surpassed beauty — views of city, town, and coun- 
try ; of inlets running to the sea, across which 
bridges have been thrown, displacing the olden 
" ferries ; " of the extended shore line, headlands, 
islands, and ocean. The rapid flight in and from 
the city of the eastern railroad train can be fol- 
lowed by the smoke of the engine, and occasional 
glances of it obtained at the openings of the 
ledges. 

The Frontispiece is a fair representation of 
Witch Hill. The probable place of the hanging 
was between w T hat appears to be two flag-staffs. 
The buildings at the foot of the hill, on the ex- 
treme right, indicate the direction of Boston-street. 
The ascent of the condemned persons was from 
the rear of the center of the picture. 

One of our visits was made on a beautiful sum- 
mer-like October morning. The atmosphere was 
clear and the panorama before us delightful. Only 
about a week earlier in the season the last of the 
witchcraft victims suffered on thin spot. Perhaps 



WITCH HILL. 321 

it was such a morning. The natural features of 
the view were as pleasant then as now. Some of 
them at least saw God as they stood on the lad- 
der, smiling through nature ; but more fully, and 
with a deeper comfort, through his Word, convey- 
ing promises of eternal life by a crucified Saviour. 
We joy to think that such, forgiven and forgiving, 
felt that the moment, though so solemn and awful, 
was the best of their lives. 

Our more serious thoughts while viewing the 
scene were interrupted by the approach of an 
Irishman, who lived near. Guessing the object of 
our visit, he seemed desirous to enter into conver- 
sation. We asked him if there were any witches 
haunting the hill. With a merry twinkle of his 
eyes he answered promptly, "Many a one, be- 
witching the boys ! " He meant to say, with all 
the people of the vicinity, that, 

" Our witches are no longer old 

And wrinkled beldames, Satan-sold, 

But young and gay, and laughing creatures, 

With the heart's sunshine on their features; 

Their sorcery, the light which dances 

"Where the raised lid unveils its glances." 

Whittier. 

Access to Witch Hiil from the street is not easy 
now, and must have been rough and jolting to the 
riders "in the cart," of the summer of 1692. As 
Mr. Upham has suggested that their approach 
must have been up the north-eastern side, not far 
from Aborn-street, we, at one time, walked from 
the site of the old jail, along the route taken by 






822 WITCH HILL. 

the sheriff with the condemned in charge, ascend- 
ing the hill in that direction. It is a moderate 
walk of thirty-five minutes. With the cart occa- 
sionally "getting set," the poor victims very likely 
dragged through an hour. 

From the pleasant summit of Witch Hill, with 
its sad memories pressing upon our minds, we bid 
the reader adieu. As we take the hand of our 
young friends we would whisper again in their 
ears the lesson of our story, ''Resist the devil;" 
approach him not in the circles of those with whom 
he is familiar, as did the girls of our history ; nor 
by any other wicked acts or unholy thoughts give 
place to his influence. Resist him, and he will flee 
from you. "Draw near to God, and he will draw 
near to you." 




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